RE: Anything new about Pelecanimimus?

["Thomas R. Holtz, Jr." <tholtz@geol.umd.edu>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-dinosaur@usc.edu [mailto:owner-dinosaur@usc.edu]On Behalf Of
> dbensen
> Sent: Monday, August 07, 2000 12:04 AM
> To: dinosaur@dinosaur.org
> Cc: dinosaur@usc.edu
> Subject: Anything new about Pelecanimimus?
>
>
> In the cource of my studies, I have come accross Pelecanimimus polyodon,
> that primitive ornithomime with lots of teeth and preserved skin.  My
> questions are these:
> 1) I have heard a wattle/dewlap and a fleshy crest mentioned;
> what do these
> things look like?

Nothing has been described of these past the original publication.

> 2)Have further studies revealed anything more about Pelecanimimus?  I
> haven't heard anything about it since its discovery.

Well, there has been the paper cited after your third question.  Also, a
short report on the hand of _Pelecanimums_ by Perez-Moreno.

> 3)Isn't it strange that an ornithomime didn't have feathers?  Was
> this lack
> secondary or primary?

You obviously haven't come across the following article:

BRIGGS, D.E.G., WILBY, P.R., PEREZ-MORENO, B.P., SANZ, J.L. &
FREGENAL-MARTINEZ, M. (1997) - The mineralization of dinosaur soft tissue in
the Lower Cretaceous of Las Hoyas, Spain. J. Geol. Soc. London, 154:
587-588.

The authors discovered that, except for part of the throat pouch, there
wasn't any of the *external* surface preserved.  Instead, what the original
describers thought was external tissue turned out to be mineralized internal
tissue (muscle fibers, etc.).  So, we honestly don't know what the outside
of _Pelecanimimus_ looked like.

                Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
                Vertebrate Paleontologist
Department of Geology           Director, Earth, Life & Time Program
University of Maryland          College Park Scholars
                College Park, MD  20742
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~tholtz/tholtz.htm
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~jmerck/eltsite
Phone:  301-405-4084    Email:  tholtz@geol.umd.edu
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