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Post by sid on Oct 13, 2009 16:16:32 GMT
From what i remember, Torvosaurus lived pretty far from the Morrison Formation, he was more of an European theropod; he was a Megalosaurid, maybe a Spinosauroid, but, then again, we have just bits of this giant, too less to define it precisely
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Post by Horridus on Oct 13, 2009 16:48:46 GMT
Torvosaurus remains have been discovered in both the US and Portugal. Griffin, you could be right about those teeth actually. I always had "megalosaur = basic theropod teeth" in my mind...
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Post by foxilized on Oct 14, 2009 7:50:52 GMT
Hah, take a look at this image from THE ANIMAL WORLD film (1956), by O'brian and Harryhausen together:
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Post by kuni on Oct 14, 2009 8:39:49 GMT
Torvosaurus was one nasty customer - it had very robust arms and large spots for muscle attachment. Pity it doesn't get more attention...
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Post by Horridus on Oct 14, 2009 15:20:09 GMT
Yeah, it's a pretty cool dinosaur, but very rare. It basically represents the last hurrah of the megalosaurs (well, if its current placement is accurate). It lived in a world dominated by Allosaurus and its kin.
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Post by brontozaurus on Oct 17, 2009 2:56:41 GMT
Why would the plates be alternating?
Also, why are other stegosaurs depicted with parallel plates when Stegosaurus has alternating plates?
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Post by Horridus on Oct 18, 2009 14:21:21 GMT
Stoneage has the best answer for alternating plates. It's difficult to tell the arrangement of the plates since they weren't attached to bones. Most paleontologist seem to think there were two rows of alternating plates. A Stegosaur was found in 92 (Denver Museum) which is 85% complete with the plates articulated in the correct position. The plates in this specimen partially overlap: if there were two parallel rows, they'd entirely overlap, and if there was one row, they would only barely or not overlap at all. Second, there is a great deal of matrix between the plates in the new specimen, indicating that in life they were seperated by a span of space. If the animal had only one alternating row, the plates would overlap only slightly, and not have such a space between them. Thus, the only solution left is that they had two alternating rows! Still others say this is because of changes that happened after the death of the animal.
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Post by kevin on Oct 19, 2009 12:43:45 GMT
Yea, although not attatched to the spine in life, just imbedded in skin and muscle, it appears that at least one specimen, the plates fossilized in place. This seems to tell us where and how they were arranged, but certainly not why.
It could be other stegos are being depicted incorrectly. Their plates are not articulated either, so no map on how to reconstruct the. Stego proper was long depicted with parallel rows, til we found better evidence.
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Post by foxilized on Oct 24, 2009 19:13:49 GMT
Artist David Krentz made this stego model, with very interesting colours in the plates: The peacock feathers actually present a high number of false "eyes", that are used to confuse predators AND females (go imagine being "watched" by thousand eyes)
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Post by kevin on Nov 6, 2009 8:25:31 GMT
Yea, I have tht pic. It is actually painting instructions to the guy who does his buildups. I wonder how close the actual paint job came? On another note, my newest book says that at least one Kentrosaurus skeleton has been found with it's last two tail spikes actually articulated to the skeleton, giving us the answer to how they were situated in life. Up, and out, in a wide back facing v....
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