ScienceScan notes

[WOlewiler <WOlewiler@aol.com>]

The following is from ScienceScan --
This newsletter's URL is 
http://www.cyberspacemuseum.com/news.html  Questions and comments to this
source, please.

TRICERATOPS AT THE TYRELL MUSEUM
This week's natural history focus is on ceratopsian 
dinosaurs, and a good place to start is by examining 
Triceratops. At nine meters (30 ft) in length, Triceratops was 
among the largest ceratopsians and one of the last to become 
extinct. It made up the bulk of the plant eating population just 
before the end of the Cretaceous. Its remains are particularly 
common in coastal lowland sediments. This dinosaur is 
included amoungst the collection of online dinosaur exhibits 
at the Tyrell Museum of Paleontology.

Go to http://tyrell.magtech.ab.ca/tour/tricera.html to learn 
more about this Canadian exhibit.
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CERATOPSIA ONLINE
To learn more about this group of dinosaurs one can turn to 
the excellent dinosaur descriptions and cladograms assembled 
by Tim Keese  on his Ceratopsia web page. This group 
contains the frilled dinosaurs, including the horned dinosaurs 
(Ceratopsidae -- see the next article). Like many other groups 
of Late Cretaceous dinosaurs, they inhabited only Asia and 
America.  This clustering of dinosaurs includes the following 
genera:  Psittacosaurus, a transitional animal whose skull 
shows the first beginnings of the giant neck frill of later 
ceratopsians. Udanoceratops was a bipedal dinosaur similar 
to Psittacosaurus, but with a more distinct neck frill. 
Protoceratops was larger, walked on all fours, and bore a 
well-developed neck frill and a bump on its snout. 
Montanoceratops was even larger, with a rudimentary horn 
on the snout.  

Go to 
http://www.gl.umbs.edu/~tkeese1/dinosaur/taxa/ceratops.htm 
to learn more about this dinosaur clan.
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CERATOPSIDAE ON THE WEB
Continuing onward with the above study of Ceratopsian 
dinosaurs one can go further into the dinosaur group which 
contains the horned dinosaurs, Ceratopsidae, which has once 
again been described in detail at Tim Keese's web site. 
Ceratopsids are divided into two groups on the basis of horn 
emphasis. The ceratopsines (to which Triceratops belonged) 
tend to have long horns above the brows, while the 
centrosaurines tend to have large horns above the nose, and 
sometimes on the frill.
Go to 
http://www.gl.umbs.edu/~tkeese1/dinosaur/taxa/cer'idae.htm 
to learn more about this dinosaur clan.