Dinovember 2016, Day 5

How many species do you see here, one or two? And are they Triceratops or not?

Name: Torosaurus latus
Meaning: the intended etymology is not totally clear, but it probably means 'wide perforated reptile', in reference to the broad frill and large openings in it; Torosaurus does NOT mean, as is often translated, 'bull reptile'
Time: Late Cretaceous, c 66 million years ago
Place: Western US and Saskatchewan
Size: about 7-9 metres (23-29.5 feet) long; weighed probably 8-13 tonnes (8.8-14.3 tons)
Type of Dinosaur: triceratopsin chasmosaurine (advanced three-horned 'long-frilled' horned dinosaur)

You may be familiar with Torosaurus because of their role in the famous BBC speculative documentary Walking With Dinosaurs in the episode that focused on the extinction of the nonavian dinosaurs (although Torosaurus seem to have already disappeared shortly before the final extinction), or more likely because of the debate over the last few years as to whether Torosaurus are a distinct animal or just the fully-mature form of Triceratops, and the absolutely awful pop-science 'journalism' that blatantly misleads with clickbaity headlines and shows a profound lack of even attempting to understand questions of classification associated with that debate.

While there's too much to say about that for me to cover it here, I'll just say the evidence really seems to be on the side of 'Torosaurus are their own unique taxon, but are closely related to Triceratops,' rather than 'Torosaurus are just old adult Triceratops' - as I said, there's a lot involved here and if you want to know more, look it up! There's a lot to read about it.

In this drawing, I feature two Torosaurus, and you can see that even within Torosaurus, classification could be questionable. Notice the differences between these individuals; the one at the front is based on ANSP 15192 while the bigger one at the back is based on the huge Museum of the Rockies specimens. The horns are shaped considerably differently, especially the nose horn - pointy and forward-angled in ANSP 15192, as opposed to a massive, low, blunted boss on the MOR skulls. Details of the brow horns, frill, and snout differ too, and I've heard that despite their size the MOR Torosaurus show signs of still having a fair bit of growing up to do. Even though it's well known that details like horn and frill shape can vary a lot between individual horned dinosaurs, something about the MOR specimens in comparison with many other Torosaurus latus makes me think we might be looking at a two different species here.

Anyway, this has gone on long enough for what is supposed to be a quick picture-led post. tl;dr: Torosaurus probably aren't the same as Triceratops, and some of the specimens called Torosaurus latus might be something else.

Come back tomorrow for... SAUROPODS! FINALLY!

A Visit To the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, Part II: Terror of the South & the Nature Research Center

Clash of the titans.

Having covered the Prehistoric North Carolina exhibit at the NCSM (North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences), it's time to head on into two other fossiliferous displays.

The first of these is the impressive Terror of the South dome, which is probably fair to call the museum's centrepiece exhibit. The other is the Nature Research Center, which opened a few years ago as a new wing to the museum, so it was totally new to me on this visit. All photos were taken by yours truly, click the break to continue...

A Visit To the McWane Science Center, Part II: Southern Sea Monsters

In the previous post, we took a look at the Alabama Dinosaurs exhibit at the McWane Science Center in Birmingham, Alabama. However, as you may remember from the last post, much of Alabama was underwater during the Cretaceous Period, submerged by a shallow seaway.

Notice how much of Alabama is submerged by a shallow seaway.
[image from Sampson et al, 2010, 'New Horned Dinosaurs from Utah Provide Evidence for
Intracontinental Dinosaur Endemism', under CC Attribution 2.5 Generic licence]

The warm waters of this shallow sea teemed with life, and after more than 75 million years, the fossil record of these marine organisms can be found in Alabama, with a diversity and richness far surpassing the state's known collection of dinosaur fossils from this time. McWane presents a sampling of this prehistoric marine life in the sister exhibit to Alabama Dinosaurs, fetchingly entitled Sea Monsters...

WARNING: Clicking the 'read more' link below without having this open in another tab is highly dangerous. Proceed at your own risk.

A Visit To the McWane Science Center, Part I: Dinosaurs of the Deep South

Sorry for the long absence. Hopefully there will be new content -- including art -- here soon.

Anyway, if you should ever find yourself in Birmingham, Alabama, as my family and I did last week, a day at the McWane Science Center is sure to prove a day well spent. McWane features a museum as well as an IMAX, and most of the exhibits are geared toward kid-friendly interactivity: there is a hall of physical-science based challenges, brain teasers, and the like, an aquarium featuring a shark and ray touch pool, and space for visiting exhibits, which at the time of our trip was hosting an interesting, interactive-heavy exhibit on the history toys and games over 20th and 21st centuries. Of course, as soon as we'd paid our admission, I dragged the family up a flight of stairs to get to what we all* came to see: the dinosaurs.

A nodosaur browses amongst the ferns as an Appalachiosaurus stalks behind it.
[photograph by the author]

*I