RE: Lurdusaurus & dinosaurian hippos

[Tim Williams <twilliams_alpha@hotmail.com>]

Brian Lauret wrote:

> As I was reading a description of Lurdusaurus I was intrigued by its
> apparently large size and heavy build. Seeing that Lurdusaurus, as
> an iguanodontian, must have descended from rather lightweight and
> fleetfooted ornithischians, it seems plausible to assume it adopted
> quite a different lifestyle, and probably quite different from other
> large iguanodontians too, as those were not as massively build. So I
> wondered, is it possible that Lurdusaurus was a large (semi-)aquatic
> herbivore and in that way convergent with hippos?

The trouble with the hippo analogy is that, although _Lurdusaurus_ was very 
heavy and bulky, it also had a rather long neck and small head.  Says Taquet 
and Russell (1999): "In its squat posture the animal must have resembled 
ankylosaurs.  However, its relatively small skull, circular chest, powerful 
and heavily clawed forelimbs, transversely flattened femoral shaft and 
generally massive skeletal elements probably even more strikingly recalled 
the form of giant ground sloths."  I would add that _Lurdusaurus_ has 
received only a preliminary description so far, and further studies may 
propose a rather different lifestyle for this strange African ornithopod.


Cheers

Tim