A Whole Bunch Of Questions

["Ivan Kwan" <dino_rampage@hotmail.com>]

1) Sail or Muscle???

In _Suchomimus_, there seem to be some pretty tall neural spines on the 
vertebrae above its hips... is there evidence for either a sail or for a 
hump of muscles? It does seem interesting that most of us still prefer to 
see our spinosaurs & ouranosaurs with sails instead of humps... what 
evidence is there for these dinosaurs not to have humps? (I still prefer 
mine with sails thank you.)

Same with _Acrocanthosaurus_... would it have a low sail along its neck & 
back or just a huge bunch of muscles?

2) _Chaoyangsaurus_ Age
What is the age of _Chaoyangsaurus_ (or is it _ChaoyangOsaurus_)?

3) _Stenopelix_
What is _Stenopelix_? Basal ceratopsian, basal pachycephalosaur, basal 
marginocephalian, basal what?

4) Hadrosaur necks
I've noticed a few hadrosaur restorations where thelong thin neck is buried 
under this thick neck just like that of a horse's. I've also seen this trend 
in a few of Greg Paul's artwork and in the silhouettes of his skeletal 
reconstructions. Personally, I think my hadrosaurs look better with thin 
necks, but hey, what do I know? But anyway, does the evidence point towards 
thin necks, thick ones, or somewhere in between. Does Leonardo the 
_Brachylophosaurus_ tell us anything?

5) Hadrosaur skin
I often notice that many restore hadrosaurs with a thin frill of skin along 
their necks & backs. I've also seen an equal number of hadrosaur 
restorations with a row of bumps or spines along the back. Do the hadrosaur 
mummies or skin impressions point to either one being more plausible than 
the other? I've always thought that a dorsal frill would be subject to much 
damage through abrasion, sharp vegetation as well as failed predator 
attacks.

6) _Parasaurolophus_
While we're on hadrosaur skin, is there actually evidence that 
_Parasaurolophus_  possessed a flap of skin that extended from the end of 
its crest down along its neck or is it purely conjecture (& a stroke of 
artistic license?)

7) Marine reptile breeding
For those among you in the know... is it possible that the smaller 
plesiosaurs/ pliosaurs/ plesiosauroids were able to haul themselves up onto 
the beach & lay eggs? I know that it seems pretty implausible that 
elasmosaurs, kronosaurs & the like were able to do so, but what about the 
smaller critters like polycotylids or say, anything the size of _Archelon_ & 
below? (How heavy was _Archelon_ anyway? And I'm pretty sure it HAD to lay 
eggs.) Anyone know how the basal sauropterygians like nothosaurs, 
pachypleurosaurs, pistosaurs & placodonts produced young? And is there 
actual fossil evidence that plesiosaurs gave live birth (like in the 
ichthyosaurs & _Plioplatecarpus_ specimens?) I've got a suspicion that maybe 
the basal ones laid eggs but maybe the more derived ones like elasmosaurs, 
cryptoclidids & pliosaurids were ovoviviparous, with maybe smaller derived 
forms like polycotylids or rhomaleosaurs reverting back to egg-laying. Or is 
this all actually just a grey area where nobody knows the answers (yet?)

Could the basal ichthyosaurs like _Utatsusaurus_ or _Chaohusaurus_ laid eggs 
or would giving birth be a trait possibly present in the ancestors of even 
these primitive ichthyosaurs?

And as for mosasaurs, what are the odds that not all mosasaurs gave birth 
like _Plioplatecarpus_? After all, different species in the same family can 
have varied methods of producing young (like in the lacertid lizards or 
colubrid snakes) & sometimes it differs even within species; for example, 
the viviparous lizard (_Lacerta viviparus_) of Europe gives birth in the 
northern part of its range but lays eggs like the other _Lacerta_ species in 
warmer climates? So is it possible that modes of reproduction among the 
mosasaurs was as varied then? (Maybe the smaller, more basal ones like 
_Halisaurus_ being egg-layers with the larger ones being ovoviviparous with 
the giant _Mosasaurus_ or _Tylosaurus_ being fully viviparous? Who knows...

P.S Just had a thought... if mosasaurs practised intra-uterine cannibalism 
like some sharks species do today, where one embryo in each ovary gets 
nutrition by feeding upon its siblings, until birth produces only 2 young, 1 
from each ovary. Whoah...

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