RE: Sneak Peak at Yale Torosaurus Sculpture

["Thomas R. Holtz, Jr." <tholtz@geol.umd.edu>]

> From: owner-dinosaur@usc.edu [mailto:owner-dinosaur@usc.edu]On Behalf Of
> Jaime A. Headden
>
>   I am partial to Witmer finding absolute correllates to test these 
> hypotheses,
> and I am glad he's finding answers. But I do not think dismissing "cheeks"
> because one is looking for mammal-style tissues is the answer. What other 
> forms
> of tissue can form a cheek-like structure and not require mammal-style
> correllates? What if simple skin covered this region and formed pockets 
> lateral
> to the jaw margins? what traces would this leave? I don't think we have the
> answers available yet to say that *Torosaurus* had wide-open jaws as shown. It
> would help to know what ceratopsians ate....
>
What he said!  ;--)

Also, after seeing the tyrannosaurid (and lizard) gum presentation at Burpee, I 
think a good dissection-&-fossil based research
program for a graduate student with an oral fixation would be a study of the 
osteological correlates (if any) of gingivia in
sauropsid jaws. That might give us some insight into what is going on in the 
snouts of ornithischians, amongst others.

                Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
        Senior Lecturer, Vertebrate Paleontology
Department of Geology           Director, Earth, Life & Time Program
University of Maryland          College Park Scholars
        Mailing Address:
                Building 237, Room 1117
                College Park, MD  20742

http://www.geol.umd.edu/~tholtz/
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~jmerck/eltsite
Phone:  301-405-4084    Email:  tholtz@geol.umd.edu
Fax (Geol):  301-314-9661       Fax (CPS-ELT): 301-405-0796