Fwd: New paper on pachycephalosaur behavior

[Tim Donovan <uwrk2@yahoo.com>]

--- "Andrew A. Farke" <andyfarke@hotmail.com> wrote:
> Date: Tue, 4 May 2004 13:14:59 -0400
> From: "Andrew A. Farke" <andyfarke@hotmail.com>
> To: <dinosaur@usc.edu>
> Subject: New paper on pachycephalosaur behavior
> 
> The
> bottom line is that they
> say this pretty much lays to rest the "headbutting"
> idea, and that the domes
> evolved for species recognition and communication. 

 The headbutting idea was already refuted long ago by
Bakker, who noted that pachycephalosaur domes aren't
broad enough for efficient head to head contact. But
what about antipredator defense-use of the dome as a
battering ram against enemies, as the Poles suggested?
Bakker believed a horn would have been more useful for
that but I note not all antipredator weapons evolved
to penetrate e.g. ankylosaur tail clubs


> 
> I'm not sure if I totally agree with all of their
> conclusions. . .the
> histology is definitely a great leap forward, in
> showing that adult domes
> aren't that "spongy" after all. I'd be greatly
> interested to see a true
> ontogenetic series for a single taxon, or even for
> several taxa. I suspect
> there may be some developmental differences between
> the various species that
> led to the variation in dome size and shape (i.e.,
> do you see the same three
> histological zones in the same proportions in all
> taxa?). If so, this means
> that the data presented in Goodwin and Horner's
> paper aren't as easy to
> interpret.
> 
> And as for what this all *really* means for
> behavior, who knows. . .are
> there really so many sympatric species of
> Pachycephalosaur as to need to
> evolve domes just for species recognition? This will
> really require more
> work with extant taxa. And a pachycephalosaur
> bonebed.
> 
> Andy
> 
> ________________________________
> Andrew A. Farke, Graduate Student
> Department of Anatomical Sciences
> Stony Brook University
> T8 040 Health Sciences Center
> Stony Brook, NY  11794-8081
>  
> Phone: 631-444-7364



        
                
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