Fossil Friday

[purplecat]

A Plateosaurus skeleton. Image stolen from The Great Dinosaur Discoveries by Darren Naish.

Comments

[spiralsheep]

Triassic sauropods are the best sauropods! The only triassic fossils I've found are Planolites but at least we know what they were formed by and their paleoecology.

[purplecat]

B. did a bit of work on Argentinosaurus at one point - mostly, I think, trying not to let his skeptism about its size show (he thought there were some quite generous gaps in the way it was mounted).

[spiralsheep]

Cretaceous dinos aren't my thing but, yes, Argentinosaurus is rather sparsely represented in fossil finds, and gentle skepticism rarely does any harm in science.

Size isn't everything. I like the Triassic weirdos, and evolutionary oddities generally.

Wow!

[ysabetwordsmith]

That is so cool. I love the upright pose -- tricky to rig!

Re: Wow!

[purplecat]

I imagine so, and one wonders quite how they decided it walked so upright (though, I assume the answer is biomechanics).

Re: Wow!

[ysabetwordsmith]

The hip joint is the most important, followed by the knee joint and shape of leg bones; the pelvis and foot can also be helpful but are less conclusive. If you're curious, look at the study of stance in the hominid family tree, where it's a crucial factor; those sources often go into more detail than the ones for dinosaurs.