Re: Utahraptor snout

[Jeffrey Martz <martz@holly.ColoState.EDU>]

> One of the illustrations we commissioned for an upcoming project is
> Utahraptor. The (very well-read) artist has shown Utahraptor with a very
> allosaurian head and neck (no horns, but the same general shape). Looking
> at the cover of RAPTOR READ, I see very distinctive long, flat snouts on
> snaky necks, nothing like the drawing I seem to have just bought. How much
> skull material do we have on Utahraptor? I would expect Bakker to know what
> was right and to insist that his cover art be accurate; is that a fair
> conjecture?

     I think  only a few isolated elements, including the lacrymal 
and premaxilla.  However, it might be relavant that Deinonychus has a 
less elongate snout that Velociraptor, and Utahraptor preceeded 
Deinonychus.  There may have been a trend in dromeosaurs to shorten the 
snout, as well as get smaller, as the Cretaceous progress.


LN Jeff