Re: Questions from my Guest Book

["Mickey Mortimer" <Mickey_Mortimer11@msn.com>]

T. Mike Keesey wrote-

> - Has anyone heard of a pre-Morrison North American stegosaur (or
> thyreophoran, anyway) called "Hesperisaurus"? Apparently it is on display
> at the North American Museum of Ancient Life in Utah.

Apparently it is-
http://www.cnn.com/2000/TRAVEL/NEWS/07/28/dino.museum.ap/
http://www.dinosaurpoint.com/2001.html
As it was on cnn.com, it should have been printed, but that would have been
a year ago.  Anyone willing to dig up archives so that George can add it to
the Dinosaur Genera List? :-)

> - What are the correct masses for _Ankylosaurus_ and _Euoplocephalus_?
> Mine do not appear to be consistent with each other.

Paul (1995) reconstructed Euoplocephalus (BMNH 5161, holotype of
Scolosaurus) at 5.83 meters and 2.3 tons.  Using the data in Coombs (1995)
suggests that this is one of the largest Euoplocephalus specimens known, so
that's probably a good estimate for maximum mass.  Coombs estimates the
length of Ankylosaurus to be 7.5 meters.  Scaling up from the estimated mass
of Euoplocephalus gives a mass of 4.9 tons for Ankylosaurus.

> I thought it was generally held to be an ornithomimoid, not a
> therizinosaur. What "series of finds" is this? Chris? Somebody?

Tracy Ford believes Deinocheirus to be a therizinosaur, but as Jaime pointed
out the other day, it has far more in common with ornithomimosaurs.  See-
http://www.cmnh.org/fun/dinosaur-archive/2001Jul/msg00023.html .  As far as
I know, no new discoveries have been made, but it would be great if they
were.

Mickey Mortimer