Re: Maryanska et al 2002 questions

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

Nicholas Gardner (n_gardner637@hotmail.com) wrote:

<Why does Maryanska et al 2002 code *Ingenia* as "?" for nearly all of the
cranial characters?  It's not like we've never recovered a head.  Is the
material that junky?>

  No, the material is very well preserved. Only a braincase was recovered
with the type postcrania, GI SPS 100/30, and this is very eroded and does
not tell us what the skull looked like except that it did not have a crest
that progressed over the nasals (the caudal edges of which are preserved).
All other skulls referred to *Ingenia* are not, infact are either
*Conchoraptor* or other skulls.

<What is basal skull length?  The skull posterior to the preorbital bar?>

  The rostral end of the skull to the posterior edge of the distal
quadrate condyles, but also to the occipital condyle. Mean skull length is
the very rostral limit to the very caudal limit of the skull, this usually
ends at the paroccipital processes.

<This is going to sound stupid but what defines the snout?>

  Maxilla, nasal, premaxilla, vomer, dentary; any of the preorbital bones
or those bones that are related to bearing teeth in front of the eyes.
Analogous to the "muzzle" of mammals. Humans, consequently, do not have
much of a snout.

  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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