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Thursday, June 16, 2011
Skeletal reconstructions: Schematic vs Realistic
Above you see two skeletal reconstructions of the basal sauropodomorph Panphagia. The one on the bottom was published with the original description, while the one on top I just finished a couple days ago. What is worth noting is how extremely different they are.
Some of the differences can be chalked up to errors in scaling (compare the length of the tails). Other differences stem from the underlying anatomical assumptions, such as how rib cages articulate and the placement of the shoulder blade (definitely topics for future posts).
But if you look closely you'll see that the very shapes of the bones differ. And in every case where the known bones differ in shape it is the skeletal that was published in the original description is inaccurate, which is odd because the bones themselves were figured correctly in the same paper.*
At least that's odd if you assume that the skeletal reconstruction on the bottom is meant to be a literal representation of the bones, when in fact it appears to be a schematic skeletal diagram.
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Back to our regularly scheduled blog posts...
Apologies for my multi-week absence. I had to finish up some large projects. I'm embarking some new cool ones as well, and I'll tell you about them as soon as I can. In the mean time, I'll be getting back to posting blogs on dinosaur anatomy, as well as another series I have in mind on skeletal poses. If you have any ideas of topics you'd like to see, please leave them below. In the meantime, enjoy this skeletal drawing of Stokesosaurus, a tyrannosauroid that lived during the Late Jurassic of North America:
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