OKAPI-STRIPED ORNITHOPODS

[darren.naish@port.ac.uk]

About WWD, Luis Rey wrote..

> I spent hours talking to the guys (specially Tim Haines) and also 
> gave them quite a few suggestions of colour patterns. I hope they 
> used them. I think I could see the 'okapi' pattern I suggested for 
> Iguanodon... maybe I'm wrong.

They have used the okapi pattern for a bunch of iguanodonts (I 
thought they were hadrosaurs, but come to think of it they might be 
_Iguanodons_) that walk along a beach. I saw the colour pattern and 
immediately thought *okapia*. A nice idea, looks good.

Incidentally, we have three of the models used in the series down 
stairs as I speak (the _Tropeognathus_, a temnospondyl head and an 
ophthalmosaur. I helped carry the ophthalmosaur into the department 
and did in some of my back musculature in the process). 
_Tropeognathus_ may well be present in the UK Cambridge Greensand: a 
lot of the so-called _Ornithocheirus_ stuff is indistinguishable 
from S. American material and specimens from both sides of the 
Atlantic have been referred to _Coloborhynchus_ (which might be a 
senior synonym of _Tropeognathus_).

DARREN NAISH 
PALAEOBIOLOGY RESEARCH GROUP
School of Earth, Environmental & Physical Sciences
UNIVERSITY OF PORTSMOUTH
Burnaby Building
Burnaby Road                           email: darren.naish@port.ac.uk
Portsmouth UK                          tel: 01703 446718
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http://www.naish-zoology.com]