Where have I been?

A good question!

Last semester here at Northwest, so things have been pretty crazy. Spinosaur review is nearing completion (waiting on a few photographs, some fantastic artwork, and a bit of statistics), and have started a new project that also deals with the certified Most Awesome Clade™ (using GIS techniques to find ideal locations for North American spinosaurs should they exist, a possibility I find quite likely).

I'll be gone roughly from the middle of May to the beginning of August, doing fieldwork in southern Utah (the Grand Staircse-Escalante National Monument area) and joining a crew from the Museum of the Rockies to work on the famous Egg Mountain site in northwestern Montana. From what I understand, the MOR field program usually offers satellite based internet services, so likely expect periodic updates as the field season progresses.

Swear I'll write about something until that time comes. Peace out, Blogland.

Science and punk rock brought to you by Bad Religion.

You've got to quit your little charade and join the freak parade
Now that your road has been paved from conception to your grave.
Enormous things to do, others' practices to eschew,
To be better than you is impossible to do,

But the world won't stop without you.
No, the world won't stop without you.

Your achievements are unsurpassed, you are highly-ordered mass,
But you can bet your ass your free energy will dissipate.
Two billion years thus far, now mister here you are,
An element in a sea of enthalpic organic compounds.

The world won't stop without you.
The world won't stop without you.

You're only as elegant as your actions let you be
A piece of chaos related phylogenetically
To every living organ system, we're siblings, don't you see?
The earth rotates and will revolve without you constantly.
Two billion years thus far, now mister here you are,
An element in a sea of enthalpic organic compounds.

The world won't stop without you.
No, the world won't stop without you.
I said the world won't stop without you.

****

Some relatively personal thoughts on the convergence of punk rock and science and what they both my mean within the confines of my own life are coming within a few days for any of those interested.

The Paleo paper Challenge.--

Andy Farke and Dave Hone are putting together a project called the (you guessed it!) Paleo Paper Challenge. The idea? Finish a paper and get it published by the beginning of next year. It's especially a new (and thus far quite interesting) challenge for me because I've never before attempted a formal scientific publication--until now I've strictly dealt with translating the information I've been learning (my interest in paleontology, especially as a life's path, was rekindled by a chance event last spring) into a medium aimed for the curious layperson.

Basically, the paper is a review on a group of ancient prehistoric animals called the Spinosauridae (I've blogged about Spinosaurus here before, so you shouldn't be entirely unfamiliar!). From the first discoveries through the century following, it details a multitude (and a half) of finds that have been made by paleontologists spanning the globe and adds my own thoughts and interpretations behind them--their form, evolution, and biotic history.

So, give it a chance! Even if you've never tried it before, there's no better time to start than now.

-Tor

Eocarcharia.

The Carcharodontosauridae, a group of enigmatic and titanic theropod dinosaurs (whose members included Giganotosaurus and Mapusaurus, amongst others) were one of the most successful predatory dinosaurian clades of all time. While the Tyrannosaurids dominated the niche of large predator in the northern hemisphere throughout the Cretaceous (the last of the three major periods of the non-avian dinosaurs' existence; lasting 145.5-65.5 million years ago), the Carcharodontosaurids, Abelisaurids, and Spinosaurids formed a frequently found biological triumverate in the Southern hemisphere; creating a fascinating and as it would appear, alarmingly successful example of a phenomenon called niche partitioning, in which multiple animals of similar (in this case massive) body size can operate in the same ecosystem with minimal to no competition by utilizing different niches (one of the most important aspects of which includes a differential food source). One of these Carcharodontosaurids, Eocarcharia dinops ('Fierce-Eyed Dawn Shark'), is the subject of this blog.. Eocarcharia, discovered in the western Ténéré Desert of Niger by paleontologist Paul Sereno and his field crew based out of the University of Chicago, is a remarkable animal. As one of the most basal members (those that display many early evolutionary characteristics of an individual group--much like the Platypus represents the basal, egg-laying mammalian condition) of the Carcharodontosauridae, it embodies a fantastic image of the early (but not earliest) development of the traits we associate with the group.

One of the most distinctive of these traits has to do with several bones of the skull--the orbit, the lacrimal, and the frontals. Archosaurs (like the crocodilians and the only living clade of dinosaurs, the birds) are partly characterized by a large opening in the skull called the Antorbital Fenestra (the first hole just behind the nares, or 'nose holes' ;-) , though the fenestra does not exist in living crocodilians). The two bones that border the eye socket, or the orbit (the large opening behind the Antorbital Fenestra) are the Lacrimal and the Postorbital-- from the front and back of the orbit respectively, each of which are attached to the frontals, a pair of bones on the top of the skull.

In late Carcharodontosaurids, these two bones meet together to form a greatly enlarged shelf that separates the frontals from the orbit region entirely (in many other dinosaurs, the frontals aren't excluded!). As hypothesized by Sereno, it's very possible that this evolution of a thickened 'brow' above the eyes to that degree suggests an adaptation for lateral impacts--sideways headbutting Carcharodontosaurs! (though I should note that a similar, but much less prominent brow is found in some Abelisaurids and Tyrannosaurids, suggesting that the development of the feature is partly related to reaching large body and skull size)

As you can see from the above diagram (below the Carcharodontosaurus skull), the frontals of Eocarcharia are separated from the orbit, but only by a small degree--though the Lacrimal of the animal itself wasn't found, Sereno and crew were able to determine its basic shape and size by the way it articulates or attaches to the post orbital and frontal. 50 million years later, this brow-like condition was greatly developed and enhanced in its relatives. Though there are many other features of note, one thing that really strikes me as fantastic about Eocarcharia is its teeth--as much as it is easily referable as a Carcharodontosaurid, the distinctive teeth of later ('derived') Carcharodontosaurs have serrations that stretch from the base of the tooth to the tip and back up the front to the base once more (thus giving the clade its name--a similar pattern is found in many modern day sharks!), a straight 'distal' end (the portion of the tooth that faces away from the snout) and a series of deep wrinkles that stretches up to the length of the tooth. Eocharia on the other hand, did not yet develop these very unique teeth.

When one considers the sheer unlikelihood of fossil preservation combined with the unlikelihood that the preserved fossils are not only exposed to the mercy of nature, but found by a far younger species of bipedal mammal with enough knowledge to either extract it and study it or tell people who can... the fact that we can trace the history of evolution as efficiently as we can never ceases to amaze me, and probably never will.

Busy, busy, busy...

So here's a dramatic sloth.

The most open dinosaurs you've ever seen!

Ye happy few (band of brothers, etc.):

Mike Taylor, Matt Wedel, and Andrew Farke have put together a project whose sheer scope and most importantly accessibility is absolutely remarkable. The basic idea is to create a massive database of Ornithischian bone measurements for various lines of research (both their own, and in the future, anyone who can use them!), starting out with an in depth statistical look into the development of quadrupedalism within the Ornithischia (when it was done, what strategies were used, which groups utilized these morphologic changes sooner in their development... all sorts of possible questions can be answered). And most importantly, anyone can contribute (and potentially be listed amongst the authors)--to find out more, visit their website!

http://opendino.wordpress.com/

Hope you're as thrilled about this as I am!

Giant theropod trackway found in the Upper Jurassic of Morocco.

This isn't just exciting and seriously awesome--it's seriously exciting and slightly more than seriously awesome.

Several researchers have just reported on a series of trackways found in the Upper Jurassic beds of Morocco--though there are several different varieties of tracks found in the area (a huge theropod, a smaller theropod and a sauropod), the tracks of the largest theropod are absolutely massive--the largest measuring 80 cm (from the posterior to anterior margins) by 76 cm (medio-laterally).

Though the exact size of trackways can be distorted by the substrate the trackway was found in (more on that later), in contrast a probable Tyrannosaur footprint found in the Hell Creek Formation (described by Philip Manning amongst several others) measures 72 cm anterior-posteriorly and 76 medio-laterally.

Though Morocco is no stranger to massive theropods (for example, Carcharodontosaurus is estimated at as much as 45 feet in adult length, with a skull several inches over five feet), this trackway's position in time shows that African Gondwanan theropods achieved a massive size fairly early in their evolution (though the exact identity of the track's owner can't be directly confirmed).

Considering the spotty record of African dinosaurs in general, especially in the Jurassic, this is beyond remarkable!

References--

Boutakiout, M., Hadri, M., Nouri, J., Díaz-Martínez, I. & Pérez-Lorente, F. 2009. Rastrilladas de icnitas terópodas gigantes del Jurásico Superior (Sinclinal de Iouaridène, Marruecos). [Gigantic theropod footprints from Upper Jurassic trackways (Iouaridène syncline, Morocco).] Revista Española de Paleontología, 24 (1), 31-46. ISSN 0213-6937.

Manning, Phillip L., Ott, Christopher, Falkingham, Peter L.-- A Probable Tyrannosaurid Track from the Hell Creek Formation (Upper Cretaceous), Montana, United States--PALAIOS 2008 23: 645-647