Maniraptors: Exploring Evolution and Features in Dinosaurs

Name_______________________________________ Section___________________ Earth 7: Dinosaurs LAB 7 – Maniraptors, Including Modern Dinosaurs Our final lab focuses on the Maniraptors – a group that includes living birds .

(From cladogram 1)

1. a. Here are several specimens of Velociraptor (a dromaeosaurid) , including a half-size skeleton model and a full-size cast of its skull. Sketch a bone that illustrates an evolutionary novelty of maniraptors, and label what feature it illustrates. Include a scale bar , and multiply by two if you draw something on the half-size model. (5 pts) b. Notice that much of the body length is made up by the extremely stiff tail. What is the benefit of having such a stiff tail? (2 pts) c. Close relatives of Velociraptor had complex feathers, and there’s evidence of feathers on Velociraptor , as well. Was Velociraptor capable of powered flight? If so, how do you know? If not, what might the feathers have been used for? (3 pts) 2. a. Notice the large crest above this skull’s nasal passages (nostrils). Name one example of a group of dinosaurs that convergently evolved head ornamentation or large nasal passages. (What dinosaurs had crazy head decorations?) (2 pts) b. This skull is from Oviraptor . Is Oviraptor or Velociraptor (a dromaeosaurid) more closely related to living birds? (2 pts) c. What feature can you see in Oviraptor that has evolved convergently with birds? (2 pts)

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3. a. Here you see two skulls: a replica skull of Archaeoptyerx and a skull of a modern ostrich. Both of these are very fragile and should be treated with great care. Does the ostrich have all of the fenestrae that you can see in Archeopteryx ? Why or why not might this be the case? (Hint: look at the mouth of the Archeopteryx vs the ostrich.) (2 pts) b. This is a cast of Archaeopteryx from the Late Jurassic Solnhofen Limestone (Bavaria, Germany). Note the feather impressions preserved in the very fine sediments of a once quiet lagoon. This kind of preservation is typical of settings that lack oxygen (excluding scavengers) and that lack disruptive currents at the bottom. Using the cast and skull, list three features you can see indicating that Archaeopteryx is NOT part of Neornithes (modern birds). (6 pts) 4. a. Name one feature that allows you to tell the chicken is an ornithodire. (1 pt) b. Who is the sister group to the ornithodires? (1 pt) c. Name one feature that allows you to tell that the chicken is a dinosaur. (1 pt) d. Who is the sister group to the dinosaurs? (1 pt) e. Who is the sister group to the coelurosaurs? (1 pt) f. Name one feature that allows you to tell that the chicken is a maniraptor. (1 pt) g. Who is the sister group to the maniraptors? (1 pt) h. The chicken has a pygostyle. What is that? (1 pt)

i. What is unusual about the carpals and metacarpals of the chicken and other modern birds? (1 pt) 5. a. This is a fossil feather. Is that information alone sufficient to identify it as coming from a bird? Why or why not ? (2 pts) b. Is this a trace fossil or a body fossil? (1 pt) c. Compare this fossil to several feathers from modern birds. How are all the modern bird feathers more morphologically “complex” than the fossil? (3 pts) d. Some of these modern feathers are primarily used for display or stability. Some feathers, on the other hand, are better suited to providing lift during flight. What is unique about the shape of flight feathers? (2 pts) 6. Birds, pterosaurs, and bats are groups of vertebrates that evolved powered flight. These are casts of famous pterosaur and bat fossils. a. Which bones in the arm of the bat became lengthened to make the wing? (2 pts) b. Which bones in the arm of the pterosaur became lengthened to make the wing? (2 pts) c. Which bones in the arm of the bird make up the wing? (You can look at one of the chicken skeletons or the Archaeopteryx cast to help answer this question). (2 pts) d. Do these observations support the idea that wings in these three groups are homologous or convergent? (3 pts)

Bonus Questions: 1. What is your TA’s name? (1 pt) 2. The Tyrannosaurus in the back of the classroom needs a name. What should we name him? 3. What was your favorite thing that you learned in this class? 4. In the space below, please write or sketch a dinosaur related joke, riddle, or drawing! (If we like it enough you may get bonus points!)

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Lab 7 Maniraptors

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