September 13, 2014

Spinosaurus fishiness part deux

September 13, 2014/ Scott Hartman

In my previous post on the proportions of the new Spinosaurus material I argued that the pelvis and legs are not nearly as reduced in size as the composite skeletal in Ibrahim, et al., (2014) implies. Theropod-worker-extraordinaire and all-around swell guy Thomas Holtz mentioned a photo (seen at left) that could serve as a sort of independent visual line of evidence that the pelvis and legs of the new Spinosaurus specimen are shorter than other theropods, and potentially shorter than I calculated from the supplementary data. I think it's worth taking a closer look...

January 25, 2014

Europe's Shield: The most complete European ankylosaur

January 25, 2014/ Scott Hartman

Late last year Europe got a brand-spankin' new ankylosaur, Europelta carbonensis. It's the most complete ankylosaur yet known from Europe (unless you consider Scelidosaurus to be a basal ankylosaur rather than a basal armored dinosaur). Let's take a look at the anatomy of Europelta, with an emphasis on what we know (and aren't so sure of) when it comes to reconstructing its armor.