D-SHAPED TEETH

[darren.naish@port.ac.uk]

I was going through some Tendaguru sauropod stuff yesterday (NHM 
collections) when I found loads of unsorted theropod teeth. Virtually 
all were recurved, laterally compressed with rostral and caudal serrated 
carinae, much like those I have that are supposed to belong to 
_Allosaurus_. However, one of them was D-shaped in cross section. It 
was small (approx. 10 mm tall), lacking the apex, and with the carina 
on the right side serrated: that on the left was not. 

I thought it was interesting to put this on record as I have not heard of 
D-shaped Tendaguru theropod teeth before. Apparently D-shaped teeth 
have been reported for _Allosaurus_, but I have not seen figures of 
these to compare the specimen with.

And courtsey of Luis, I have now seen photos of the giant 
_Chirostenotes_ from the Sandy Site. It only bears the scantest of 
resemblances with the tentative skull outline drawn by Tracy for the 
Dinosaur Society book. The skull is longer than that of oviraptorids 
and the crest is dorsally rounded and located very far forwards. The 
rostral border of the snout is gently concave if memory serves - the 
animal's beak is odd. As previously figured by Sues (1997), the lateral 
surface of the maxilla is convex. And hooray for miniature theropods.

"When I was born, I was so ugly the doctor slapped my mother"


DARREN NAISH 
PALAEOBIOLOGY RESEARCH GROUP
School of Earth, Environmental & Physical Sciences
UNIVERSITY OF PORTSMOUTH
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