Re: Mononykus

["Jaime A. Headden" <qilongia@yahoo.com>]

A possible explanation for the "large" mononykid head:

  The occipital condyle on the skull is fairly small, as are the vertebrae. 
This articulates a
skull the size of *Shuvuuia* to an animal of roughly the size of the type 
skeleton of *Mononykus*,
so that the animal was around 3.5 feet long to 4 feet. *Shuvuuia* was also a 
bit larger than the
type skeleton of *Mononykus*, which is arguably not fully grown, or had a bit 
to go on its
ontogeny (bird-wise).

  The skull _is_ rather large for the animal, and this is not a problem except 
for the restoration
of the animal previously known where the skull was known only to a partial 
braincase and a maxilla
fragment. A complete skull shows that the original estimate for the skull was a 
good deal
undersized relative to the braincase. Greg Paul's restoration is therefore 
perfectly logical.


=====
Jaime A. Headden

  Little steps are often the hardest to take.  We are too used to making leaps 
in the face of adversity, that a simple skip is so hard to do.  We should all 
learn to walk soft, walk small, see the world around us rather than zoom by it.

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