Re: Saurolophus skin impressions show species distinctions

[David Krentz <ddkrentz@charter.net>]

  This is really cool.  I'm wondering about the thickness of skin and how it 
hangs on the animals.  Is it tight like a horse or sagging like an elephant or 
bunching up like a komodo dragon.  I recall there was a paper that described 
sub dermal  properties of Psittacosaurus skin.  It showed that they were kind 
of chubby!  I suppose some skin wrinkle features that occur on mummy specimens 
could happen post-mortem as well.  

D
On Feb 4, 2012, at 12:06 AM, Mickey Mortimer wrote:

> 
> I normally don't care much for papers that aren't phylogenetic or 
> osteological, but I gotta say this is one of the coolest I've read.  It's 
> amazing we have the material to describe interspecific differences in 
> integument and possible coloration.  I'd love to see a similar comparison 
> between Saurolophus and other hadrosaurid genera with skin impressions.
> 
> Mickey Mortimer
> 
> ----------------------------------------
>> Date: Fri, 3 Feb 2012 21:26:57 -0800
>> From: bcreisler@gmail.com
>> To: dinosaur@usc.edu
>> Subject: Saurolophus skin impressions show species distinctions
>> 
>> From: Ben Creisler
>> bcreisler@gmail.com
>> 
>> 
>> New in PLoS ONE:
>> 
>> Bell, P.R. (2012)
>> Standardized Terminology and Potential Taxonomic Utility for
>> Hadrosaurid Skin Impressions: A Case Study for Saurolophus from Canada
>> and Mongolia.
>> PLoS ONE 7(2): e31295
>> doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0031295
>> http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0031295
>> 
>> The characterization of palaeospecies typically relies on hard-tissue
>> anatomy, such as bones or teeth that is more readily fossilized than
>> soft parts. Among dinosaurs, skin impressions are commonly associated
>> with partial and complete hadrosaurid skeletons, and consist of
>> non-imbricating tubercles or scales. Skin impressions from various
>> parts of the body of two species of the hadrosaurine Saurolophus (S.
>> angustirostris from Mongolia and S. osborni from Canada) are described
>> from multiple specimens. These species, recently validated on
>> osteological grounds, can be differentiated based solely on
>> soft-tissue anatomy, namely scale shape and pattern. This study
>> demonstrates for the first time the applicability of soft-tissue
>> (i.e., scale impressions) as a means to differentiate species within
>> the Dinosauria. Differences are most spectacular in the tail, where S.
>> angustirostris is differentiated by the presence of vertical bands of
>> morphologically distinct scales, a grid-like arrangement of circular
>> feature-scales, and tabular scales along the dorsal midline.
>> Preliminary results indicate scale architecture remained consistent
>> throughout ontogeny in S. angustirostris. These results support
>> previous assertions that hadrosaurid scale architecture has a positive
>> phylogenetic signal. As such, future taxonomic descriptions should
>> include, where possible, the standardized description of skin
>> impressions including the position and orientation of these
>> impressions on the body.
>