Ruling Reptiles

Ruling Reptiles
Author: Holly N. Woodward
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Total Pages: 693
Release: 2023-09-05
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0253066476

Modern crocodylians—crocodiles, alligators, caiman (Central and South America), and gharials (India)—have evolved over 250 million years from a fully terrestrial, bipedal ancestor. Along with birds, crocodylians are the only living members of Archosauria, the group including nonavian dinosaurs. Ruling Reptiles features contributions on a broad range of topics surrounding crocodylian evolution and biology including osteology, osteohistology, developmental biology, myology, odontology, functional morphology, allometry, body size estimation, taphonomy, parasitology, ecology, thermophysiology, and ichnology. It demonstrates how the wide variety of these studies can also provide crucial insights into dinosaurian biology and evolution. Featuring the latest findings and interpretations, Ruling Reptiles: Crocodylian Biology and Archosaur Paleobiology is an essential resource for zoologists, biologists, and paleontologists.

Tyrannosaurid Paleobiology

Tyrannosaurid Paleobiology
Author: J. Michael Parrish
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Total Pages: 313
Release: 2013-07-05
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0253009472

Drawn from a 2005 international symposium, these essays explore current tyrannosaurid current research and discoveries regarding Tyrannosaurus rex. The opening of an exhibit focused on “Jane,” a beautifully preserved tyrannosaur collected by the Burpee Museum of Natural History, was the occasion for an international symposium on tyrannosaur paleobiology. This volume, drawn from the symposium, includes studies of the tyrannosaurids Chingkankousaurus fragilis and “Sir William” and the generic status of Nanotyrannus; theropod teeth, pedal proportions, brain size, and craniocervical function; soft tissue reconstruction, including that of “Jane”; paleopathology and tyrannosaurid claws; dating the “Jane” site; and tyrannosaur feeding and hunting strategies. Tyrannosaurid Paleobiology highlights the far ranging and vital state of current tyrannosaurid dinosaur research and discovery. “Despite being discovered over 100 years ago, Tyrannosaurus rex and its kin still inspire researchers to ask fundamental questions about what the best known dinosaur was like as a living, breathing animal. Tyrannosaurid Paleobiology present a series of wide-ranging and innovative studies that cover diverse topics such as how tyrannosaurs attacked and dismembered prey, the shapes and sizes of feet and brains, and what sorts of injuries individuals sustained and lived with. There are also examinations of the diversity of tyrannosaurs, determinations of exactly when different kinds lived and died, and what goes into making a museum exhibit featuring tyrannosaurs. This volume clearly shows that there is much more to the study of dinosaurs than just digging up and cataloguing old bones.” —Donald M. Henderson, Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology

The Teeth of Non-Mammalian Vertebrates

The Teeth of Non-Mammalian Vertebrates
Author: Barry Berkovitz
Publisher: Academic Press
Total Pages: 356
Release: 2016-10-14
Genre: Science
ISBN: 012802884X

The Teeth of Non-Mammalian Vertebrates is the first comprehensive publication devoted to the teeth and dentitions of living fishes, amphibians and reptiles. The book presents a comprehensive survey of the amazing variety of tooth forms among non-mammalian vertebrates, based on descriptions of approximately 400 species belonging to about 160 families. The text is lavishly illustrated with more than 600 high-quality color and monochrome photographs of specimens gathered from top museums and research workers from around the world, supplemented by radiographs and micro-CT images. This stimulating work discusses the functional morphology of feeding, the attachment of teeth, and the relationship of tooth form to function, with each chapter accompanied by a comprehensive, up-to-date reference list. Following the descriptions of the teeth and dentitions in each class, four chapters review current topics with considerable research activity: tooth development; tooth replacement; and the structure, formation and evolution of the dental hard tissues. This timely book, authored by internationally recognized teachers and researchers in the field, also reflects the resurgence of interest in the dentitions of non-mammalian vertebrates as experimental systems to help understand genetic changes in evolution of teeth and jaws. - Features more than 600 images, including numerous high-quality photographs from internationally-recognized researchers and world class collections - Offers guidance on tooth morphology for classification and evolution of vertebrates - Provides detailed coverage of the dentition of all living groups of non-mammalian vertebrates

Anatomical Imaging

Anatomical Imaging
Author: Hideki Endo
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 150
Release: 2009-02-05
Genre: Science
ISBN: 4431769331

This book presents selected works of contemporary evolutionary morphologists and includes such topics as broad scale reconstructions of the brain and ear of dinosaurs, inference of locomotor habits from cancellous bone architecture in fossil primates, and a comparison of the independently evolved manipulating apparatuses in the lesser and giant pandas. Insight is provided into the application of modern noninvasive technologies, including digital imaging techniques and virtual 3D reconstruction, to the investigation of complex anatomical features and coherences. In combination with traditional methods, this allows for the formulation of improved hypotheses on coordinated function and evolution. The creation of virtual translucent specimens makes it possible to realize the age-old dream of the classical anatomists: looking through the skin into the inner organization of an organism. On full display here is the dramatic and promising impact that modern imaging techniques have on scientific progress in evolutionary morphology.

Biology of the Sauropod Dinosaurs

Biology of the Sauropod Dinosaurs
Author: Nichole Klein
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Total Pages: 369
Release: 2011-04-22
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0253013550

Sauropods, those huge plant-eating dinosaurs, possessed bodies that seem to defy every natural law. What were these creatures like as living animals and how could they reach such uniquely gigantic sizes? A dedicated group of researchers in Germany in disciplines ranging from engineering and materials science to animal nutrition and paleontology went in search of the answers to these questions. Biology of the Sauropod Dinosaurs reports on the latest results from this seemingly disparate group of research fields and integrates them into a coherent theory regarding sauropod gigantism. Covering nutrition, physiology, growth, and skeletal structure and body plans, this volume presents the most up-to-date knowledge about the biology of these enormous dinosaurs.

Ceratosaurus (Dinosauria, Theropoda)

Ceratosaurus (Dinosauria, Theropoda)
Author: James H. Madsen
Publisher: Utah Geological Survey
Total Pages: 89
Release: 2000
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1557913803

The Ceratosauria is modified to include two super families with one new subfamily. Two new species of Ceratosaurus are described, the first based on an articulated skeleton from the Fruita Paleontological Area in western Colorado, and the second on skeletal elements of a single individual from the Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry in east-central Utah. A number of additional specimens, identifiable only to genus, have been found in North America and are mentioned or briefly described. Specimens from East Africa and Switzerland are also considered to be identifiable only to genus. The peculiar genus Labrosaurus is placed in synonymy with Allosaurus.

Crocodilian Biology and Evolution

Crocodilian Biology and Evolution
Author: Gordon Clifford Grigg
Publisher: Surrey Beatty and Sons
Total Pages: 446
Release: 2001
Genre: Crocodiles
ISBN: 9780949324894

"This volume grew out of a conference Crocodilian Biology and Evolution which was held at the University of Queensland in July 1998, with significant support from the (then) Department of Zoology" - Introd.