RE: BIG-HEADED THEROPODS ARE NOT SO BIG HEADED

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-dinosaur@usc.edu [mailto:owner-dinosaur@usc.edu]On Behalf Of Tetanurae@aol.com
Sent: Wednesday, October 31, 2001 5:21 PM
To: kinman@hotmail.com; dinosaur@usc.edu
Subject: BIG-HEADED THEROPODS ARE NOT SO BIG HEADED

Ken Kinman wrote:
<<The longest dinosaur skulls are apparently all theropods>>

>Um Ken.... Ceratopian dinosaurs have far and away the longest dinosaurian skulls. In fact I often work 5 metres

>from the largest known skull of any land animal, the chasmosaurine Torosaurus. Triceratops and Pentaceratops

>also had quite long skulls, often times twice as long as their tyrannosauroid nemises.

Quite! Although I should point out that the non-frill region of big specimens of Triceratops are longer than the non-frill region of Torosaurus (which has a bigass frill and a little face). The facial region of Triceratops is still longer than a T. rex skull, although perhaps not longer than Giganotosaurus and certainly shorter than a big complete Spinosaurus.

As for Argentinosaurus: any estimate is an extrapolation pretty far outside the range of good sauropod skulls. My guess would be around 1.5 m, but that is a guesstimate, nothing more.

                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