Re: Skull of Daspletosaurus torosus

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

At 08:25 AM 7/2/99 -0600, Chris Brochu wrote:
>The Russell reference Tom posted has been republished, for example in
>the Carnosauria chapter in *The Dinosauria*.  There's also a
>reconstruction in Bakker et al's "Nanotyrannus" description, but IIRC it
>looks much like Russell's.

True.  Other places where reconstructions are available are Ken Carpenter's
1992 review of tyrannosaurs (in a very hard to find book published in
China!) and in Greg Paul's Predatory Dinosaurs of the World.

Don Glut's Dinosaurs: The Encyclopedia has a photo of the mounted specimen
(the skull on the mount is a cast: the real bones are in the collections) on
page 330: it is at an oblique angle and would not be terribly useful for
model makers.

Note: not that helpful are the illustrations of the "Albertosaurus libratus"
skulls in Russell (1970) (copied in Molnar et al. 1990, and elsewhere).
This specimen, previously an AMNH specimen and now an FMNH specimen, has a
LOT of restoration.  Where there is bone it appears to lack synapomorphic
features found in more complete _Gorgosaurus libratus_ specimens;
unfortunately, missing parts were restored after _G. libratus_ (which was
the only known large tyrannosaurid from the Judith River Group at the time
the specimen was found and reconstructed).

Those who are interested in what _G. libratus_ adult skulls look like should
see the wall mounted AMNH specimen and the other skull currently on the
floor next to the _T. rex_.

The identity of this specimen...?  That would be telling. (Stay tuned).

                        Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
                        Vertebrate Paleontologist
Deptartment of Geology                  Director, Earth, Life & Time Program
University of Maryland                  College Park Scholars
College Park, MD  20742       
Webpage: http://www.geol.umd.edu        Phone:301-405-4084
Email:tholtz@geol.umd.edu               Fax:  301-314-9661