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.
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What trace fossil could serve as evidence that main dinosaur you are excavating was predated upon? (1 pt)
Toothmarks or teeth embedded in bones
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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)
Their large size and if they are filled with minerals from undigested bones.
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The ventral bones beneath the skeleton are called chevrons. What are the functions of chevrons? (1 pt)
They surround and protect blood vessels for the tail.
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What are the two types of bones represented in the caudal region of the organism’s skeleton? (1pts)
The caudal vertebrae and the chevrons
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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 HYPERLINK "https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/figure/image?size=large&id=10.1371/
journal.pone.0006738.g001" HYPERLINK "https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/figure/image?size=large HYPERLINK "https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/figure/image?size=large&id=10.1371/
journal.pone.0006738.g001"& HYPERLINK "https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/figure/image?size=large&id=10.1371/
journal.pone.0006738.g001"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 Ankylosaurs usualy have short centra because their heavily armored tails need support. Titanosaurs, on the other hand, have longer, skinnier centra. Spinosaurs also have centra that are longer and skinnier when compared to an ankylosaurs. Ankylosaurs also have
