tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-140938929136406282.post3622436674658822793..comments2023-11-18T15:42:20.251-05:00Comments on DinoGoss: Banji the HuntedMatt Martyniukhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04220900229537564466noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-140938929136406282.post-63593160130983154522011-03-31T18:43:10.709-04:002011-03-31T18:43:10.709-04:00Hi Stig,
Don't get me wrong, I think it's...Hi Stig,<br /><br />Don't get me wrong, I think it's great though that someone actually went in and started looking at this.<br /><br />After all, a Master's thesis only opens the door on an idea usually.... can't wait to see what work comes in the future on this if you're going to keep going. :)<br /><br />NickAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-140938929136406282.post-15856199965725414492011-03-09T16:59:46.858-05:002011-03-09T16:59:46.858-05:00Can I just say that I only had a few hours to take...Can I just say that I only had a few hours to take pictures of the original skull, and my presumptions are based on the pictures. This was my Master thesis, and I had a year or so to study around the topic. More thorough studies should have been made, but I didn't have enough time, or money, to study the microanatomical surfaces for the attachment of keratin and soft tissue.<br /><br />My friend Espen M. Knutsen (Beak morphology in extant birds with implications on beak morphology in ornithomimids) and I are two of only a handful people that actually have compared the structures in jaw bones of oviraptorids, ornithomimids, birds and turtles, and the lack of original skulls did it difficult to simulate the accurate beak extension. But we did found out that only a few bones in the skull actually are covered with ramphotheca.<br /><br />I know my conclusion is highly discussable, and my only goal was to get people thinking in a new direction.<br /><br />Stig OlavAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-140938929136406282.post-67703336072810756152010-05-06T13:28:25.216-04:002010-05-06T13:28:25.216-04:00I felt Jansen's approach was very weak. I'...I felt Jansen's approach was very weak. I'll be interested to see when it comes out, but it relies too much on superficial bone anatomy without considering microanatomical surfaces for the attachment of keratin and soft tissues, I would have liked to have seen a more aggressive study. This work doesn't really meet the bar for what should be standards of inferring nonbony skin structures in fossil sauropsids.<br /><br />It's great that he shows in turtles how the shape of the bony structure influences the shape of the beak, but it needed to be taken more aggressively.<br /><br />Incidentally, the paper about beaks in ornithomimids and birds wasn't written by Jansen, it was written by Espen Knutsen. The final paragraph of that thesis reads:<br /><br />"I suggest that future studies in this area should put a greater emphasis on histology to see whether the bone-structure in the area covered by ramphotheca shows any anomaly compared to the rest of the skull (especially in the junction from cover to non-cover). Histological examination of the foramina in birds with comparisons to ornithomimids (and other theropods) might also reveal if they are connected to keratin growth-zones, or if they can throw light on the type of sensory papillae present."<br />Neither thesis tackles the issue of what's going on at a less than superficial level. The methods used in both papers doesn't really help clarify the extent of the beak in either extinct taxa.<br /><br />Until someone rolls up their sleaves and starts looking at the snouts of oviraptorosaurs and ornithomimids on a microanatomical level, either through high-res X-ray CT or histology, and compares the data collected to that of living birds, turtles and other beaked vertebrates, we're not going to even begin to really understand what's going on here.<br /><br />Also, other workers have basically already started doing this-i.e. looking at microanatomy of dermal skull bones and finding ramifications for the extent/type of skin structures present over those bones. The bar is set high,if the work isn't done to meet a good understanding of what's really happening at the interface of hard and soft tissues, then any assumptions about the extent of keratins is just arm waving.Nickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08718847558790015112noreply@blogger.com