Publication Date:
2001-09-29
Description:
Little is known about the cranial anatomy of the taxonomically diverse and geographically widespread titanosaurs, a paucity that has hindered inferences about the genealogical history and evolutionary development of the latest sauropod dinosaurs. Newly discovered fossil eggs containing embryonic remains from the Late Cretaceous of Argentina provide the first articulated skulls of titanosaur dinosaurs. The nearly complete fetal skulls shed light on the evolution of some of the most notable cranial features of sauropod dinosaurs, including the retraction of the external nares, the forward rotation of the braincase, and the abbreviation of the infraorbital region.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Chiappe, L M -- Salgado, L -- Coria, R A -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2001 Sep 28;293(5539):2444-6.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Vertebrate Paleontology, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, 900 Exposition Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90007, USA. lchiappe@nhm.org〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11577234" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Animals
;
Argentina
;
*Biological Evolution
;
Embryo, Nonmammalian/anatomy & histology
;
*Fossils
;
Nose/anatomy & histology/embryology
;
Reptiles/*embryology
;
Skull/anatomy & histology/*embryology
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
