RE: Dinosaur Revolution: Anatomical Nitpicking

["Thomas R. Holtz, Jr." <tholtz@umd.edu>]

> From: csaconn@triad.rr.com [mailto:csaconn@triad.rr.com] 
> Sent: Friday, September 09, 2011 4:48 PM
> To: dinosaur@usc.edu; tholtz@umd.edu; simkoning@msn.com
> Subject: RE: Dinosaur Revolution: Anatomical Nitpicking
> 
> Was Allosaurus's lower jaw so much longer than the top one as 
> shown in the show? Sorry for the non-technical terminology :)
> 

In a healthy individual, no! The lower jaw would fit entirely within the upper 
jaw, producing what I call the "wrap-around
overbite."

But this is a definitely pathological individual, who had the crap smacked out 
of its face as a juvenile and healed poorly.

By the way, I'm going to use this post for a citable reference on Wikipedia's 
Dino Rev page; Wikipedians, you know what to do...:

* The ornithopod in episode 2 is in fact Draconyx. Too bad we see it for just a 
couple of seconds, as this is (I believe) the first
time this taxon has been animated.

* The basic model for the dicynodont in episode 1 is based on Placerias, when 
that storyline was going to be in the Chinle (and be
Postosuchus vs. Placerias vs. Coelophysis). However, with a shift to the 
Ischigualasto Fm., Coelophysis was replaced with Eoraptor,
Postosuchus with Saurosuchus, and Placerias with Ischigualastia.

* There are two separate unnamed crocodyliforms in episode 3: a large-bodied 
semiaquatic predator in the Utahraptor sequence, and a
generalized carnivorous notosuchian in the Anhanguera sequence.

* The Protoceratops in episode 3 is not the classic P. andrewsi, but is instead 
the newly-discovered P. hellenikorhinus. (Check out
the profile  of the adult male skulls). Thus, this sequence is placed not in 
the Djadochta proper, but slightly upsection (the time
of the Bayan Mandahu/Wulansuhai Fm. deposits), making the Velociraptor in this 
story V. osmolskae rather than V. mongoliensis.
(Given the very little material of V. osmolskae, this really doesn't make a 
lick of difference, however.)

Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
Email: tholtz@umd.edu   Phone: 301-405-4084
Office: Centreville 1216                        
Senior Lecturer, Vertebrate Paleontology
Dept. of Geology, University of Maryland
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~tholtz/
Fax: 301-314-9661               

Faculty Director, Science & Global Change Program, College Park Scholars
http://www.geol.umd.edu/sgc
Fax: 301-314-9843

Mailing Address:        Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
                        Department of Geology
                        Building 237, Room 1117
                        University of Maryland
                        College Park, MD 20742 USA