Re: Duckbill necks

["Matt D. Celeskey" <mceleskey@cabq.gov>]

I suppose any thread talking about how one "should" or "shouldn't" restore
dinosaurs could get really ugly, but I'm curious and would like to probe the
topic a little. My questions for Peter (and anyone else out there) are sincere
and not meant as any type of attack.

Peter Von Sholly wrote:
>I know you used the word "viable" but to me we are coming dangerously close
>to the old "do anything you want with dinosaurs, it doesn't matter because
>we can't know for sure anyway" way of doing things.  And these speculative
>explorations reverberate endlessly out there.
<snip>
>Who cares?  I care.  I'm tired of unfounded ideas-of-the -moment being
>thrown out there carelessly, confusing people and making it seem as though
>dinosaur-folk don't know what they're doing.

Is this really a fair assessment? I would tend to think (possibly naively) that
anyone who pays enough attention to the way restorations have changed also
realizes that some degree of speculation is involved (in both the science and
the artwork). Can you give any examples of recent disenchantment-confusion with
dinosaur paleontology due to overly speculative restoration?

>How about the new "weird sauropod" from Argentina?  Augustia, was it?
>Anybody out there making paintings and model kits of that yet?  Go ahead,
>"you are very much free to choose and be as creative as viable possibilites
>may allow you".  And nobody can prove you're wrong anyway.

What would be the minimum material required to make an acceptable
reconstruction/restoration? (Certainly more than an abstract ;-) But when more
detailed information is published on Augustia, is there enough material* to make
an acceptable life restoration? A reconstruction of its back? Would it be better
left as a named pile of fossils? I'm curious to see where people (artists,
paleontologists, fans, etc.) draw the line.

*"The collected material includes a sequence of 19 incomplete neural arches, 9
dermal ossifications located on the neural spines, a right tibia and fibula
with an incomplete astragalus, and 5 metatarsals from the left side." From Jose
Bonaparte's abstract as posted by Dinogeorge.

Matt.
mceleskey@cabq.gov
http://www.io.com/~mwalk/hmnh/hmnhmain.html