Re: Erliansaurus bellamanus

["Mickey Mortimer" <Mickey_Mortimer111@msn.com>]

Colin McHenry wrote-

> I just noticed the words 'nutritional foramen'... As most of you probably
> know, these are almost ubiquitous in plesiosaur vertebrae, but I had
always
> assumed that only plesiosaurs had them.  Oops.  So pardon my ignorance,
but
> what dinosaurs / other reptiles had them?  And has anyone worked out what
> they did?

Theropods of various types (tyrannosaurids, ornithomimids, troodontids,
etc.) have nutrient foramina in their cervical centra, which sometimes
become pneumatized (Makovicky, 1995).  They're seemingly for blood vessels.

Mickey Mortimer