RE: Late Maa North American tyrants (was RE: Validity of Alioramus)

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

> From: owner-dinosaur@usc.edu [mailto:owner-dinosaur@usc.edu]On Behalf Of
> Demetrios M. Vital
>
> Pardon my inexperience, but the N. lancensis skull reconstruction in HP
> Gregory S. Paul's PDW looks like it has a lacrimal horn (I hope that I am
> using the correct terminology for the hornlet in front of the orbit) that
> is way too big for T. rex.  Obviously, I trust this reconstruction, and it
> is the only one I have access to, at the moment.  Is this merely an
> ontological feature?

Actually, it was an artificial feature!  As Bakker, Currie & Williams
determined, the lacrimal horns (you are using the correct term) were made of
plaster, and had been created based on Gilmore's assumption that this
specimen was a late-surviving species of _Gorgosaurus_.  The best
illustrations currently available of the "Nano" skull are those by Dino
Puerla in Thom Carr's 1999 paper on tyrannosaurid craniofacial ontogeny (JVP
19(3): 497-520.  Just happened to have that paper out when this email came
through...).  These illustrations denote those parts which are osseous and
those which are plaster.

>
> P.S. What's up with "Tinker?"  Is there a skeletal reconstruction yet?

Haven't seen one.  Also, I've heard from those who've seen the specimen
recently that it is less complete than originally suggested.

Also, from an unrelated posting: the term "exaptation" was coined by Gould &
Vrba, not just Gould.

                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
Fax (Geol):  301-314-9661       Fax (CPS-ELT): 301-405-0796