RE: Common ceratopsian horn ailments

["Andy Farke" <andyfarke@hotmail.com>]

The reference you are referring to here was published by R. S. Lull in 
his 1933 monograph. He illustrated part of the squamosal of the YPM 1831 
specimen, I believe. It was examined by a Dr. Mook(?) I think, and he 
compared it to bone lesions found in human remains. The photos I've seen 
are interesting, but I don't know for sure whether it was bone cancer or 
not. A re-examination of the problem would be nice.

Regarding other pathologies, the St. Paul Science Museum Triceratops has 
a nice drainage-canal in the jugal. Also, some Torosaurus caudal 
vertebrae I've seen have monster drainage canals, indicating some sort 
of painful infection. The whole centrum is warped.

C. W. Gilmore published drawings of a Triceratops orbital horn that was 
injured and re-healed. The horn was broken about 2/3 of the way up, and 
rounded over into a kind of stump. I have a picture of that one laying 
around some where. In the same paper, Gilmore illustrated some nice 
cross-sectional views of Triceratops skulls, and a scapula with a 
massive spur coming off of the blade. Gilmore is definitely one of the 
un-sung heroes of paleontology.

I'm trying to think of other injuries I've seen in the horns, but I 
can't think of them off-hand (too late in the day).

Hope that helps,
Andy Farke

Date: Mon, 17 Aug 1998 22:33:41 -0700
From: "Stewart, Dwight" <Dwight.Stewart@VLSI.com>
To: "'majestic_cheese@yahoo.com'" <majestic_cheese@yahoo.com>,
        dinosaur@usc.edu
Subject: RE: Common ceratopsian horn ailments
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I read recently (will look for the reference) that evidence was found of
"bone cancer" in a torosaurus fossil.  What that evidence was, I'm not 
sure,
because I don't recall the specifics.  Nevertheless, I'll look for the
source tomorrow.

Dwight

        -----Original Message-----
        From:   Larry Dunn [SMTP:majestic_cheese@yahoo.com]
        Sent:   Friday, August 14, 1998 1:03 PM
        To:     dinosaur@usc.edu
        Subject:        Common ceratopsian horn ailments

        What, if anything, does the fossil record tell us about common
        ailments of ceratopsian (or ceratopian, if you prefer) horns? 
        Breakage, problematic rehealings (if this happened), rot, 
possible
        problems due to prior malnutrition, whatever.

        If there is a decent amount of material, if it genus or species
        specific or common to all ceratopsians?

        Most importantly, how would it manifest itself physically?  For
        instance, how would part of a horn have broken off? Please be
specific
        if you can so that I get a decent idea of what I'd be looking at 
if
I
        were standing a few feet from the head of the animal.

        An odd question, but thanks for any help,

        ==
        Larry

        "Atheism -- a non-prophet organization"

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