RE: Ornitholestes

["Williams, Tim" <TiJaWi@agron.iastate.edu>]

>> Did _Ornitholestes_ have a horn on the top of its snout or not?

> Everything I've read says it did.  Either that or some type to ridge 
> stretching back between the eyes.

Says O. Rauhut: "Paul (1988a, b) argued for a close relationship between
_Ornitholestes_ and _Proceratosaurus_, and reconstructed the skull of the
former taxon with a nasal horn.  My observations of the type specimen of
_Ornitholestes_ (AMNH 619) revealed little evidence for the presence of such
a structure; the apparent upward flexure of the posterior border of the
external nares on the left side of the skull is caused by a break and
subsequent ventral displacement of the ascending process of the maxilla and
the nasals."

Pity.  A horn for _Ornitholestes_ would have been so much cooler.



Tim


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