Re: Where have all the ornithischians gone?

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

Previously I had written:

"[D]orsals bearing their parapophyseal pedicles below the dorsal margin of the
anterior face of the centrum (as well as the posterior face), a femur and
scapula of the same length, a distal scapula craniocaudally broader in diameter
than the proximal end and a posterolaterally-oriented glenoid, which all
indicate a largely semi-sprawled quadrupedal static posture."

  I should also mention one rather unambiguous feature in the skull of
*Lotosaurus* for which I am probably not very too familiar, but which is very
distinctive: a postfrontal. Additionally, the jugal has a rostral ascending
ramus butressing the lachrymal, which is broadly triangular and does not form
distinctive processes. This cranial complex is rather unlike dinosaurs and is
found in non-dinosaurian archosaurs. Indeed, all basal dinosaurs, aqnd
*Silesaurus* lack a postfrontal.

  Cheers,

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.

"Innocent, unbiased observation is a myth." --- P.B. Medawar (1969)

"Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the 
experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to 
do so." --- Douglas Adams

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