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D-SHAPED TEETH
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
Burnaby Building
Burnaby Road email: darren.naish@port.ac.uk
Portsmouth UK tel: 01703 446718
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http://www.naish-zoology.com]