Plastic Development in Plateosaurus: Fast, but Environmentally-Dictated

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

In tomorrow's _Science_, yet more prosauropod goodness:

  Sander, P. M. & N. Klein. 2005. Developmental plasticity in the
   life history of a prosauropod dinosaur. _Science_
   310(5755):1800-1802.

Abstract:
  "Long-bone histology indicates that the most common early
   dinosaur, the prosauropod *Plateosaurus engelhardti* from the
   Upper Triassic of Central Europe, had variable life histories.
   Although *Plateosaurus* grew at the fast rates typical for
   dinosaurs, as indicated by fibrolamellar bone, qualitative
   (growth stop) and quantitative (growth-mark counts) features of
   its histology are poorly correlated with body size. Individual
   life histories of *P. engelhardti* were influenced by
   environmental factors, as in modern ectothermic reptiles, but
   not in mammals, birds, or other dinosaurs."

  Available online (for a price) at:
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/310/5755/1800?etoc

  Supplemental information at:
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/310/5755/1800/DC1

  Cheers,

Jaime A. Headden

"Innocent, unbiased observation is a myth." --- P.B. Medawar (1969)

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