DINO BRAINS/CRESTED PTEROSAUR

[darren.naish@port.ac.uk]

Undergoing a financial crisis, I can only afford to come in and check 
my emails once a week. I am spending/wasting lots of time writing up 
my website - those of you interested in what I have been doing on 
Wealden theropods may be interested in the results. There will also 
be copious stuff on MARINE REPTILES, the history and fauna of New 
Zealand, the evolution of mustelids, FLIGHTLESS BIRDS, cetaceans and 
their evolutionary history and details on my field study sites (one 
of which has this month been swamped by a massive influx of 
stinking dead fish - oh goodee, more hyomandibulars and ceratohyals 
for me to identify...). 

WRT studying dinosaur brains, Mickey wrote...

> I'll point this guy toward Emily Giffin's work; 

Don't forget that Emily is now Emily Buccholz (though, of course, she 
was Giffin when she wrote the dino brain stuff).

On another issue (one of many I would like to comment on: time, alas, 
is now a luxury), I recently got hold of the recent DISCOVER magazine 
issue with the article about exceptionally well preserved 
Santana/Crato fossils (I actually bought it for the shark articles, 
and then found the fossil stuff afterwards). As Tracy pointed out 
here before, the article includes a photo of the new crested 
pterosaur that looks superificially like a _Pteranodon_ yet has 
_Anhanguera_-like teeth. Ok, here is the news: the photo is very 
misleading as it has been gratuitously altered in photoshop. They 
have taken the block which houses the fossil and have surrounded it 
with a huge border of CG matrix: in reality the block is not much 
bigger than the skull itself and its upper edge runs *across* part of 
the thing's crest. This means that, contrary to what you can see in 
the _Discover_ photo, we do not know how the crest ends. It could be 
short, as it is in the CG photo, or it could be very much longer, as 
in ostensibly male _Pteranodon ingens_. I am not bitching about 
Discover magazine or whoever altered the image: I just want to make 
it clear that the photo is not a realistic portrayal of the actual 
fossil. As always, never trust the literature!

And on the subject of pterosaurs, Dave Unwin bought to my attention 
the fact that the current issue of TREE (_Trends in Ecology and 
Evolution_) has a big review article on pterosaur biology. I have 
only seen the cover: it pictures a _Sordes_ specimen and says 
'pterosaur biology: back to the traditional model'.

"After careful consideration... I must agree.. that Jar Jar must die"
Echoing the sentiments of the community at large.

DARREN NAISH 
PALAEOBIOLOGY RESEARCH GROUP
School of Earth, Environmental & Physical Sciences
UNIVERSITY OF PORTSMOUTH
Burnaby Building
Burnaby Road                           email: darren.naish@port.ac.uk
Portsmouth UK                          tel: 01703 446718
P01 3QL                               [COMING SOON: 
http://www.naish-zoology.com]