11.25.09
A Growing Paradigm
As if hurried by the process of discovery and the level of acheivement gained through the recovery and description of Darwinopterus (details summarized here),researchers have uncovered yet another long-tailed, large-skulled “intermediate” between the rhamphorhynchoid and pterodactyloid grades of pterosaur, Wukongopterus lii.
Wang X.-l., A. W. A. Kellner, Jiang S.-x. and Meng J. 2009. An unusual long-tailed pterosaur with elongated neck from western Liaoning of China. Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências 81(4):793-812.
11.24.09
Despotic Theropods
A while ago, I blogged about “despots,” my term for a grade of small to medium-sized theropods that predate the evolution of the large to gigantic tyrannosaurids, or “tyrants.” In it, I projected that a small group of theropods would form a grade within the larger group of theropods that would lead directly to Tyrannosauridae; this group, generally the Tyrannosauroidea, would arise from small predaceous cursors, long limbed and long armed, large skulled and generally unremarkable otherwise, save that they would have features of their bigger descendants.
A month ago, one of these taxa has been given the spot-light with a century-long-awaited redescription (and an immensely detailed and thourough one at that):
Rauhut, O. W. M., A. C. Milner and S. Moore-Fay, in press. Cranial osteology and phylogenetic position of the theropod dinosaur Proceratosaurus bradleyi (Woodward, 1910) from the Middle Jurassic of England. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, online early preview.
10.22.09
Some Thoughts on Darwinopterus
By now, the blogosphere has had it’s chance on Darwinopterus. PZ Myers had a shot over at Pharyngula summarizing it, Darren Naish at Tetrapod Zoology approached the ecological angle by exploring the potential for predation (also handled by Mark Witton’s illustration of the aerial predator it is envisioned to be), while Dave Hone at Archosaur Musing’s set up the pterosaur general story and Darwinopterus‘ impact on it. Eventually, the hubbub will die down, but for now, I wanted to say a piece or three.
Lü J.-c., Unwin, D. M., Jin X.-s., Liu Y.-q. and Ji Q. in press. Evidence for modular evolution in a long-tailed pterosaur with a pterodactyloid skull. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, B First Cite (DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2009.1603)
09.22.09
The Littlest Big Rex
Paul Sereno, world famous for his far-flung and well-publicized discoveries and descriptions, will be adding a new taxon name to his roster: Raptorex kriegsteini.
Sereno, P., Tan L., Brusatte, S. L., Kriegstein, H. J., Zhao X.-J., Cloward, K. 2009. Tyrannosaurid skeletal design first evolved at small body size. Science, in press — DOI: 10.1126/science.1177428
Sensationally, this new taxon is a small, and yet maturely-developed member of the dinosaur group that includes Tyrannosaurus. It features long legs, a long head, protportionately small vertebrae and a short spine, and yet has tiny arms. Representatives of the origin of the tyrannosaurs include other recent discoveries, such as Dilong, which apparenly had longer arms and a relatively shorter skull for its size. The paper is thoughrough in describing the juicy bits: Skeletal anatomy, proportions of the arms, etc. A large deal is spent attempting to compare it to some of the other recently discovered early tyrannosaurs like Xiongguanlong, Guanglong, and the aforementioned Dilong. For the most part, it seems relatively distinct. However, it is never adequately compared to Dilong, which according to the authors is from the same formation Raptorex is. This “according” is unfortunately due to an unfortunate circumstance in Raptorex’s early history: Read the rest of this entry »
Lingham-Soliar’s Review of Chinese Fossil Preservation
…or, an article that can be summed up by the following rhetoric:
“On this 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin, perhaps the greatest evolutionary biologist of all time, I ask, has the care and caution that characterized Darwin’s work taken a downward spiral in many of the evolutionary interpretations associated with the fossils from China today? Good fossils or bad science?” — Theagarten Lingham-Soliar, 2009 (J. Ornith, in press)
It is not enough, perhaps, to perform the work, or even make the comparisons, but to also have the framework established on which your theory is based.
Lingham-Soliar, T. 2009. Dinosaur protofeathers: Pushing back the origin of feathers into the Middle Triassic? Journal of Ornithology. In press. Read the rest of this entry »
A Welcome
Some of you may recall me by an earlier, corrupted blog. This is it’s updated, modern form.
My specialty is the investigation of functional morphology, especially of the jaws and dentition, of fossil reptiles. This is really a hobby, so I hold no degrees but I tend to think I know enough to say a thing or two about the subject that comes up. This leads the author across crocodilians, lizards, turtles, birds, and their extinct relatives. There will be a major focus on dinosaurs, and often of a critical nature as a casual reviewer. I will always attempt an “angle” when it comes to each topic of discussion, and I will always produce citations.
What I will not do is update regularly. I do tend to write at my own pace, so patience in updates will be rewarding, I think.
Cheers, and I hope you enjoy this blog. Maybe so will I!
