Re: Crest or Horn? was RE: Ornitholestes

["Steve Brusatte" <dinoland@lycos.com>]

On Mon, 17 Dec 2001 20:10:58  
 T. Mike Keesey wrote:
>This question brings up another one: when is something a crest and when is
>it a horn? Do _Ceratosaurus_, _Allosaurus_, _Proceratosaurus_, and
>_Carnotaurinae_ have horns or do they have crests? What are the criteria?

That's a good question, and I don't know the answer.  I would tend to say that 
a "horn" should refer to something roughly conical, but I don't think a 
dichotomy has ever been published.  What we need is something like William 
Blows' paper in the Armored Dinosaurs.  In his paper Blows clearly defined 
dermal armor terms such as "scute," "plate," etc.  A similar paper, formally 
defining "horn," "crest," and other terms, is a very good idea.

Steve

Steve Brusatte
Dino Land Paleontology
http://www.geocities.com/stegob