Re: Theropod questions

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

Nicholas Gardner (n_gardner637@hotmail.com) wrote:

<I'm under the impression that the pedes are not known for any
abelisaurid. Is this true?  If not, which ones have preserved them?>

  Only one abelisaurid has feet preserved, *Aucasaurus garridoi*.

<Were the pedes preserved in *Staurikosaurus* or *Eoraptor*?>

  Not in the first, yes in the second.

<What is "acrodonty"?>

  Where teeth are not implanted in a socket and lack a root, but are fused
or "cemented" (with cementum, no doubt) to the dorsal margin of the
dentary. Most fish and many lizards, snakes, primitve reptiles, etc., have
this type of tooth "implantation."

<Were there any >known< coelurosaurs that retained the fourth metacarpal?>

  *Coelurus*, in the referred material, had them, and probably one other
... and Mickey had better keep his mouth shut on that one....

<While looking at a skull reconstruction of *Shuvosaurus inexpectus*, I 
noticed that the quadratogajul resembles a inverted "F".  If one wished to
do a life reconstruction of this theropod, how would one deal with this
odd shape?>

  Draw it. The bone preserves it, and the skull that Chatterjee
photographs is very clear about what's real and what isn't. Rauhut has
done good in restoring some parts differently, and I do the same, but the
qj does have this process and it is very likely that it continued and
contacted the caudal margin of the ascending process of the jugal, but the
process as preserved does not extend this far and I am not sure if it is
broken or not. The description does not elucidate.

  Cheers,

=====
Jaime A. Headden

  Little steps are often the hardest to take.  We are too used to making leaps 
in the face of adversity, that a simple skip is so hard to do.  We should all 
learn to walk soft, walk small, see the world around us rather than zoom by it.

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