PALEO200 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Dinos, Stegosauria, Ankylosauria
Document Summary
Quadrupedal di(cid:374)o(cid:859)s (cid:449)ith (cid:396)o(cid:449)s of p(cid:396)oje(cid:272)ti(cid:374)g osteode(cid:396)(cid:373) plates down their tails; osteoderm spikes on backs and shoulder; front limbs are much shorter than their hind limbs;not fast runners; pivot quickly; heads are small relative to their bodies. Osteoderm: bones that develop within the skill and are a common component of animal armor; in sauropods these were less important for protection and more important as mineral reserves: ankylosaurs. Bones are the most common dino fossils because bones decay less rapidly than do softer tissues. Fossil footprints are natural foot molds that were originally made in soft, fine grained sediments; may have impressions of foot scales. Skin impressions from other (cid:396)egio(cid:374)s of a di(cid:374)o(cid:859)s (cid:271)od(cid:455) (cid:272)a(cid:374) (cid:271)e p(cid:396)ese(cid:396)(cid:448)ed if a dino was covered by mud shortly after it died and before its flesh rotted away. Dino specimens that include a lot of skin fossils are often called mummies; the first mummified dino were hadrosaur specimens found in.