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(quotes from Michael Hanson)
A problem that I've been wrangling with for quite a bit of time,
too. I published a paper in DinoFest a few years back (based on my freshman
[high school] science fair project--looking back on it, I see room for much
improvement, but hey. . .). One thing to consider is the disparity between
Triceratops in different geographical areas. I brought this up in my DinoFest
paper, and I seem to recall that this was addressed in an SVP talk a few years
back.
See:
Farke, A. A. 1997. The distribution and taxonomy of
Triceratops, in: D. L. Wolberg, E. Stump, and G. Rosenberg, eds.
Dinofest International: Proceedings of a Symposium Held at Arizona State
University. Philadelphia: Academy of Natural Sciences, pp. 47-49.
Happ, J. W., and C. M. Morrow. 1996. Separation of
Triceratops (Dinosauria: Ceratopsidae) into two allopatric species by
cranial morphology. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 16 (supplement
to Number 3), Abstracts of Papers, Fifty-Sixth Annual Meeting, p.
40A.
So, my next question is how you are going about this. . .I think you are right to pay attention to the horns and frill--that's where most of the major differences will (hypothetically) lie between species. Are you using photographs? Drawings? Personal examinations of specimens?
Beware of this guy! He's a tricky one. . .Marsh's and
Hatcher's illustrations look little like the actual specimen. . .
A quick note (to everyone on the list!): Please be careful about listing even unpublished names on the DML. They tend to get a life of their own once out on the Internet. . . _______________________________
Andrew A. Farke South Dakota School of Mines and Technology 501 East St. Joseph Street Rapid City, SD 57701 |