Re: largest dinosaur (skulls)

["Jaime A. Headden" <qilongia@yahoo.com>]

Ken Kinman (kinman@hotmail.com) wrote:

<Thanks for the information.  I wasn't really thinking about the bony frills 
being included in
skull length, but even including them, I didn't think they got much beyond 6 
ft.   I stand
corrected.   But I just wonder if we will ever get a supergiant Spinosaurus 
coming along to
reclaim that distinction for the theropods?>

  One should note that I was using linear measures in skull size. In shear 
volumetric size,
Tyrannosaurus rex has the largest skull of any theropod. The 
carcharodontosaurines come in second
with long skulls, deeper, but not nearly as massive or wide. I would like to 
see a volumetric
study on skull size, though. That would make an interesting project, probably a 
Master's thesis.
Anyone?

<And although sauropods seem to be lagging badly in third place, I still 
suspect that their
largest skulls will be close to four feet in length.>

  Ah, but the fossils would seem to go against you. Titanosaurs have 
notoriously small heads,
comparable in size to diplodocids. Diplodocus carnegii has a skull of only 2ft 
of it's 85+ foot
length; there is no known skull of Argentinosaurus huinculensis, unfortunately. 
That of
Nemegtosaurus is around 2ft. Dicraeosaurines have small skulls too, deeper than 
diplodocids, but
they massed smaller on the whole. No, the largest skulls belonged to 
brachiosaurids, so far known,
and are around 3 feet long, 1.5 feet wide, and about 2.5 feet tall at the nasal 
arch. I don't have
accurate measures on hand, so pardon me.

  BTW, Pete (Tetanurae@aol.com) is the provider of the frill data, not I.

=====
Jaime A. Headden

  Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhr-gen-ti-na
  Where the Wind Comes Sweeping Down the Pampas!!!!

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