Mini-Assignment 6: Prepare for the next excavation lab (caudal bones and trace fossils)
To answer the questions below, read pages 226-231 about dinosaur trace fossils and see box 6.1 and page 341 for information about the skeletal regions you’ll seen
in lab this week.
1.
What trace fossil could serve as evidence that main dinosaur you are excavating was predated upon? (1 pt)
If there was a bite mark or evidence that the animal was eaten in any way, it would suggest that a scavenger was feeding on the dinosaur before it decomposed. 2.
What evidence could you use to support that a given coprolite was made by a dinosaur? What might give you uncertainty about what animal made the coprolite? (2 pts)
The presence of undigested plant material or bone fragments in the coprolite could indicate that the coprolite was made by a dinosaur 3.
The ventral bones beneath the skeleton are called chevrons. What are the functions of chevrons? (1 pt)
They can provide support for the tail and protect it, help with the balancing function of the tail, and help stabilize the tail. 4.
What are the two types of bones represented in the caudal region of the organism’s skeleton? (1pts)
Caudal vertebrae and chevrons 5.
Examine the figures of these dinosaur tails. You may need to be logged in to the library using your NetID and password to view some images. Describe the differences you see among the taxa using at least 5 of the following terms
: centrum, neural arch, neural spine, transverse process, chevron, osteoderm, caudal, sacral (5 pts)
Ankylosaur:
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/figure/image?size=large&id=10.1371/journal.pone.0006738.g001
Titanosaur:
https://media.springernature.com/full/springer-static/image/art%3A10.1038%2Fsrep06196/MediaObjects/
41598_2014_Article_BFsrep06196_Fig1_HTML.jpg?as=webp
Spinosaur:
https://media.springernature.com/full/springer-static/image/art%3A10.1038%2Fs41586-020-2190-3/MediaObjects/
41586_2020_2190_Fig1_HTML.png?as=webp
The Titanosaurs tend to have longer and slenderer centrum. Spinosaurs also have more of an elongated centrum, compared the the Ankylosaur that is shorter and more robust. The ankylosaurs have very strong and protective neural arches compared to the Titanosaur and Spinosaur. Ankylosaurs have short neural spines relative to their vertebrae, compared to the titanosaur and spinosaur.
