Re: Dino-lips (was Re: Poison thero-teeth?)

["Jordan Mallon" <j_mallon@hotmail.com>]

> From: "aspidel" <aspidel@infonie.be>

> Is it possible that some dinosaurs had lips and oral glands, and that
> >those lips and glands disappeared in birds with the development of the
> >beak?

I think I should also add to this discussion Tracy Ford's obseration that a
number of tyrannosaurids ("Stan" the _T. rex_ and what some consider to be
_Nanotyrannus_) had maxillary teeth that would have been much too long to
have been covered by the lips from the lower jaw.  In fact, in "Stan's"
case, the maxially teeth protrude past the bottom of the mandible, thus
making any type of tooth-covering lip highly dubious, at best.
That said, along with phylogenetic bracketing, I seriously doubt any
theropods had lips.

-Jordan Mallon

http://www.geocities.com/paleoportfolio/

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