PELECANIMIMUS SKIN

[Tetanurae@aol.com]

Betty Cunningham wrote:
 <<Pelicanimimus is a pterasaur-not a dinosaur, so skin does not have to be
 parsimonious to dinosaurs in the least.>>

No it isn't.  I don't know what pterosaur you are thinking of, but
Pelecanimimus is a basal ornithomimosaur from Spain.  It is known from most of
the presacral skeleton, and shows impressions of a throat pouch, and a little
flesh crest at the back of the skull.

Dann Pigdon wrote:
 <>>

The reexamination showed that the fibres were muscles and not hair.  As far as
I know, there is no actual SKIN preserved with Pelecanimimus: naked, scaley,
feathered or otherwise, just the "mummified" throat muscles.  From their
orientation, they are possibly the mylohyoids (someone who knows more about
hyoid musculature please speak up if I am way off).  The same sort of thing
happens with Scipionyx, where the internal organs including muscles are
present, but there is no sign of skin at all.

Peter Buchholz
Tetanurae@aol.com