Re: Dermal spine

["Thomas R. Holtz, Jr." <th81@umail.umd.edu>]

At 06:38 PM 6/25/98 EDT, Jonkeria wrote:
>Just a quick question about an ornithishian amidst all this feathered
>theropodmania-I have just read Lucas' 1901 description of "Stegosaurus"
>(?Polacanthus) marshi, and in it he makes the following statement:
>"A dermal spine, found by Mr. J. B. Hatcher, in conjunction with the remains
>of Triceratops, and regarded at the time as belonging to that genus, may very
>likely have come from the species under consideration" [S. marshi]
>
>Now, I doubt that this Upper Cretaceous find is S. marshi, but what is it? Is
>it a badly weathered Triceratops horn, or true ankylosaurian dermal armor,
>possibly from Edmontonia?
>
This is probably either the ankylosaurian shoulder spine (Figs. 1-2) or the
pachycephalosaurian head spine (Figs. 11-12), illustrated in Plate LXX of
Marsh's Dinosaurs of North America. These were thought to have been from
_Triceratops_.

Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
Vertebrate Paleontologist     Webpage: http://www.geol.umd.edu
Dept. of Geology              Email:th81@umail.umd.edu
University of Maryland        Phone:301-405-4084
College Park, MD  20742       Fax:  301-314-9661