Re: Troodontid skulls in other nests: the answer

[Jason Brougham <jaseb@amnh.org>]

Again, I thank Mark for sharing this preliminary information with us.

But the important thing is to check out the troodontid hatchling! I think it's 
just an exquisitely beautiful fossil.


On Jul 8, 2011, at 2:21 PM, Jura wrote:

> Um, did you just unintentionally scoop Norell?
> 
> Jason
>  
> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: Jason Brougham <jaseb@amnh.org>
>> To: Dinosaur Mailing List <dinosaur@usc.edu>
>> Cc: 
>> Sent: Friday, 8 July 2011 2:14 PM
>> Subject: Troodontid skulls in other nests: the answer
>> 
>> T here was a recent feature on Mark Norell in the Wall Street Journal:
>> 
>> http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304447804576411911713825824.html
>> 
>> It includes a photograph (the second photograph, halfway down the page) of a 
>> troodontid nest and one nearly complete hatchling, minus skull. The 
>> hatchling is 
>> IGM 100/1003, and it is assigned to Byronosaurus jaffei. This same material 
>> was 
>> displayed at the AMNH in 2000:
>> 
>> http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/fightingdinos/ex4.html#
>> 
>> I asked Mark about these specimens and he told me some amazing facts, some 
>> of 
>> which were already published in the 2009 Bever paper on the Byronosaurus 
>> skulls. 
>> He blew away our whole debate on DML about how the Byronosaurus  skulls IGM 
>> 100/972 and IGM 100/974 could have gotten into the nest of Citipati, 
>> IGM/979. 
>> 
>> It turns out that the Byronosaurus nest  was collected two years  after the 
>> Citipati nest, and just two meters uphill and laterally from the famous  
>> Citipati nest at the Xanadu sublocality of Ukhaa Tolgod. The Citipati nest 
>> was 
>> at the end of a drainage course from the Byronosaurus one, so the troodontid 
>> material must have tumbled down and come to rest in the depression of the 
>> lower 
>> nest.
>> 
>> When we had our debate about this on DML I entertained several scenarios but 
>> at 
>> one point I suggested that we need not resort to any explanations that 
>> included 
>> biological interaction. By biological interaction I meant scenarios where 
>> the 
>> Citipati fed on perinate Byronosaurus, or vice versa, nor nest parasitism. I 
>> thought that sheer proximity of nests in a perennially occupied nesting 
>> ground 
>> could explain how debris from one nest lands in another. 
>> 
>> Dr. Norell is preparing to publish this information, inclu
> but he is a darned busy guy. I thank him for sharing this preliminary 
>> information with those of us who were dying to know.
>> 
>> 
>> Jason Brougham
>> Senior Principal Preparator
>> American Museum of Natural History
>> jaseb@amnh.org
>> (212) 496 3544
>> 

Jason Brougham
Senior Principal Preparator
American Museum of Natural History
jaseb@amnh.org
(212) 496 3544