Taking measurements

["Nick Snels" <stegoceras@hotmail.com>]

I'm having some problems finding the right way to measure total skull length 
in order to compare it to the relative length of other skull elements. Most 
of the papers list total skull length as the length measured from the tip of 
the premaxilla or rostral to the posterior end of the quadrate condyle. But 
using this has caused some problems. Take for exemple the skulls of the 
Pachycephalosauria, if you measure from the anterior tip of the premaxilla 
to the posterior end of the quadrate condyle you get a length which is much 
smaller than the actual length of the skull, since the quadrate condyle is 
facing very much anteriorly. The same problem goes for members of the 
Ceratopsia, because you don't take into account the posterior facing frill. 
So wouldn't it be for exemple better to measure total skull length from the 
anterior tip of the premaxilla/rostral to the posterior end of the parietal? 
Or can this cause problems? I was hoping that other members of the list have 
got something to say about this problem.


Cheers,

Nick Snels
http://www.geocities.com/athens/styx/3406/index.html




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