Re: More concerning the Triceratops/Torosaurus deal

["Jean-Michel BENOIT" <s.aegyptiacus@wanadoo.fr>]

Hi DMLers

I mean, ok I'm just a layman, and ok, am therefore no specialist,
but, concerning this topic, I want to know: how many "species"(taxa?) are 
expected to be found within a "family"(taxon?) pertaining to the same clade? 
Why is it that _Torosaurus_ has to be _Triceratops_ adlut stage? Ontogeny is 
a nice thing. But what if this was based on incomplete fossil preservation, 
like _Toro_ would be a parent clade (?above genus level) of _Triceratops_ , 
and only subadult stages of the latter had been found? Given the quite fast 
evolution of ceratopids during the Cretaceous, is it impossible to think 
that this "_Toro_ adult" stage of _Triceratops_ is actually a subadult stage 
of an adult  _Triceratops_ yet to be found? And, by the same way, that young 
or subadlut _Toro_ have not yet been found?

Don't know if I've made my ideas clear

Cheers anyway, as usual!

Jean-Michel

(you might sense that I'm very fond of _Triceratops_...)

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Michael Erickson" <tehdinomahn@live.com>
To: "Dino List" <dinosaur@usc.edu>
Sent: Thursday, October 29, 2009 12:29 AM
Subject: More concerning the Triceratops/Torosaurus deal



Greg Paul's mention of a rumor about a juvie *Torosaurus* made me think of 
something else that might have bearing on the *Torosaurus* as adult 
*Triceratops* issue - that bigbutt *Triceratops* skull at the BYU Earth and 
Science Museum. I know it hasn't been described (at least, to my knowledge 
it hasn't), but according to Luis Rey, Bakker and a couple others who claim 
to have seen it, it is at least as large as the largest specimens of 
*Torosaurus*. It is apparently very, very massive. Too bad they won't dust 
the thing off and publish something on it. But anyway, I wonder - would a 
*Triceratops* skull the size of the biggest *Torosaurus* skulls, and showing 
no sign of fenestrae opening up, refute the notion that Toro is the adult 
stage of Trike?



Just a thought.



~ Michael

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