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Tim Williams | 1 Sep 2010 06:16
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Re: Baldaur bondac, the double-bladed dromaeosaurid of Transylvania!


> Today at 00:28 Central European summertime, Scott Hartman got truncated:

Poor Scott.

> Also, while the foot is neat because of the enlarged trenchant
> first ungal, let's not overlook that metatarsal 1 has migrated
> distally and is allowing nearly full contact with the ground. It looks
> like what I'd expect as an intermediate grade between Falcarius and more
> derived therizinosaurs 

The distal migration of metatarsal I is intriguing.  Like Jaime, I wonder how much the preserved position of
the first digit (hallux) reflects its natural position.  It's difficult to determine the shape of
metatarsal I from the description (including figures), but there's no indication of torsion or bending
associated with retroversion.  Nevertheless, the distal migration of metatarsal I, plus elongation of
the phalanges, plus the enlarged ungual, is characteristic of perchers.  The only thing missing is retroversion.

Cheers

Tim
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Jaime Headden | 1 Sep 2010 09:52
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RE: Balaur bondac, the double-bladed dromaeosaurid of Transylvania!


Hmm ... one of you suggested this .. .either Scott or Dann. My bad for confusing you!

Cheers,

Jaime A. Headden
The Bite Stuff (site v2)
http://qilong.wordpress.com/

"Innocent, unbiased observation is a myth." --- P.B. Medawar (1969)

"Ever since man first left his cave and met a stranger with a
different language and a new way of looking at things, the human race
has had a dream: to kill him, so we don't have to learn his language or
his new way of looking at things." --- Zapp Brannigan (Beast With a Billion Backs)

----------------------------------------
> Date: Tue, 31 Aug 2010 15:14:00 -0700
> From: keesey <at> gmail.com
> To: dinosaur <at> usc.edu
> Subject: Re: Balaur bondac, the double-bladed dromaeosaurid of Transylvania!
>
> On Tue, Aug 31, 2010 at 12:45 PM, Jaime Headden  wrote:
> >
> > so I'm going to back up Mike Keesey's implication that this may be a late-surviving basal dromaeosaurid
convergent in some details to "velociraptorine" dromaeosaurids.
>
> I'm not sure who suggested that, but it wasn't me. (Interesting idea, though.)
> --
> T. Michael Keesey
(Continue reading)

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David Marjanovic | 1 Sep 2010 13:29
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Re: Double impact at K-T boundary ?

  > Typical DML reaction!  Loads of discussion on whether Ukraine should
>  or should not be preceded by "the".
>
>  Absolutely no discussion, apart from the usual "is Shiva really an
>  impact?", on whether this satisfies Gerta Keller's double impact
>  theory.

That's because many of us are very, very skeptical about Keller's 
double-impact hypothesis in the first place. The identification of the 
supposed Cretaceous foraminifera in the Chicxulub crater has been 
questioned, and if it's correct, it's still possible that the rock 
they're in has fallen in from the walls of the primary crater. 
(Impactors of that size produce a hemispherical crater that is, IIRC, 20 
km deep or some other such insane number. Its walls, vertical at the 
top, then collapse, leaving a much shallower and much wider crater. In 
other words, Cretaceous rock with Cretaceous foraminifera in it _must_ 
have fallen into the primary crater and _must_ be present inside the 
present crater; maybe Keller has found some of it.)
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T. Michael Keesey | 1 Sep 2010 17:50
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Re: Balaur bondac, the double-bladed dromaeosaurid of Transylvania!

On Wed, Sep 1, 2010 at 12:52 AM, Jaime Headden <qi_leong <at> hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hmm ... one of you suggested this .. .either Scott or Dann. My bad for confusing you!

Andrea Cau posted on the idea here:
http://theropoda.blogspot.com/2010/09/balaur-more-than-just-double-sickle.html
--

-- 
T. Michael Keesey
Technical Consultant and Developer, Internet Technologies
Glendale, California
http://tmkeesey.net/
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Scott Hartman | 1 Sep 2010 18:12
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Re: Balaur bondac, the double-bladed dromaeosaurid of Transylvania!

I was the one who noted that the foot looks like a
proto-therizinosaur.  Alas, it was in a truncated message.  Here it is
again in plain text:

"Pelvis seems really squished.  The hand is awesome!  Also, while the
foot is neat because of the enlarged trenchant first ungal, let's not
overlook that metatarsal 1 has migrated distally and is allowing
nearly full contact with the ground. It looks like what I'd expect as
an intermediate grade between Falcarius and more derived
therizinosaurs (note: I'm making no such phylogenetic claim, just
getting excited about the convergence).

Anyways, really neat, and if the pairing with Velociraptor holds then
it looks like even after 100 million years or so of tridactylism it
still wouldn't have been too difficult for theropods to reverse to 4
(or nearly 4) functional toes for terrestrial locomotion."

Sorry about the truncation!

-Scott

On Wed, Sep 1, 2010 at 10:50 AM, T. Michael Keesey <keesey <at> gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On Wed, Sep 1, 2010 at 12:52 AM, Jaime Headden <qi_leong <at> hotmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > Hmm ... one of you suggested this .. .either Scott or Dann. My bad for confusing you!
>
> Andrea Cau posted on the idea here:
> http://theropoda.blogspot.com/2010/09/balaur-more-than-just-double-sickle.html
> --
(Continue reading)

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Lee Hall | 1 Sep 2010 19:53
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Re: Double impact at K-T boundary ?

Is anyone aware of other impacts that have been identified by fern
spikes?  Couldn't fires or volcanic fallout cause something similar?

Lee Hall
Paleontology Undergraduate
Museum of the Rockies
Montana State University
Bozeman, MT
lhall <at> montana.edu
http://sites.google.com/site/leehallpaleo/Home

On Tue, Aug 31, 2010 at 9:40 AM, Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. <tholtz <at> umd.edu> wrote:
>
> > From: owner-DINOSAUR <at> usc.edu [mailto:owner-DINOSAUR <at> usc.edu]
> > On Behalf Of John Hunt
> >
> > Typical DML reaction!  Loads of discussion on whether Ukraine
> > should or should not be preceded by "the".
>
> True enough.
>
> > Absolutely no discussion, apart from the usual "is Shiva
> > really an impact?",
>
> Let's put this even more specifically: until actual geophysicists and
> structural geologists find evidence this is a crater, the default is that
> there is no there there.
>
> > on whether this satisfies Gerta Keller's
> > double impact theory.
(Continue reading)

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Phillip Bigelow | 1 Sep 2010 23:17
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Re: Double impact at K-T boundary ?

There is an interesting paper on mapping the ejecta blanket of Meteor Crater in Arizona.

John A. Grant and Peter H. Schultz. Erosion of Ejecta at Meteor Crater, Arizona: Further Constraints from
Ground Penetrating Radar. LPSC XXV: 459-460.

Sorry, I don't have the pub. date.  It's a Lunar and Planetary Institute Conference pub XXV.  I do have the PDF, though.

Whatever material directly overlies Meteor Crater's ejecta blanket would be of use in this discussion. 
Some university should fund a graduate student and a drill corer and see if charcoal, fern spores, burnt
(fired) clay, or any other indicators of wildfire or flash-heating can be seen near the crater (say, 1-5 km
from the impact).  It would provide valuable clues to how such thermal events would be fossilized, and that
data could then be used to extrapolate to larger impact events.

Meteor Crater is an excellent subject for such a study because it is a terrestrial structure, and it should
preserve a lot of proximal-impact site effects.

There remain lots of studies yet to be conducted on fossil impact sites.

<pb>

---------- Original Message ----------
From: Lee Hall <paleeoguy <at> gmail.com>
To: DML <dinosaur <at> usc.edu>
Subject: Re: Double impact at K-T boundary ?
Date: Wed, 1 Sep 2010 12:53:39 -0500

Is anyone aware of other impacts that have been identified by fern
spikes?  Couldn't fires or volcanic fallout cause something similar?

Lee Hall
(Continue reading)

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Phillip Bigelow | 1 Sep 2010 23:28
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Re: Double impact at K-T boundary ?

Lee Hall <paleeoguy <at> gmail.com> writes:

> Is anyone aware of other
> impacts that have been identified
> by fern spikes?  Couldn't fires
> or volcanic fallout cause something
> similar?

I vaguely recall a palynological paper, published about a decade ago, in which the investigator
identified approximately a dozen fern spikes within a 10 meter-thick stratigraphic section.  The
section was randomly chosen.

Moral of the story:  By themselves, fern spikes are not indicators of impacts, but when other pieces of
evidence are combined with the palynology data, then the spikes may help identify an environmental
reaction to an impact.

I'll see if I can dig up that paper....

<pb>

____________________________________________________________
1 Tip for Losing Weight
Cut down 2 lbs per week by using this 1 weird old tip
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Lee Hall | 1 Sep 2010 23:35
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Re: Double impact at K-T boundary ?

There's also the Manson Impact Structure in Iowa.  This paper
(http://www.montana.edu/wwwes/facstaff/Manson.pdf) has a pretty good
dissection of the MIS' morphology.

Lee Hall
Paleontology Undergraduate
Museum of the Rockies
Montana State University
Bozeman, MT
lhall <at> montana.edu
http://sites.google.com/site/leehallpaleo/Home

On Wed, Sep 1, 2010 at 4:28 PM, Phillip Bigelow <bigelowp <at> juno.com> wrote:
> Lee Hall <paleeoguy <at> gmail.com> writes:
>
>> Is anyone aware of other
>> impacts that have been identified
>> by fern spikes?  Couldn't fires
>> or volcanic fallout cause something
>> similar?
>
>
> I vaguely recall a palynological paper, published about a decade ago, in which the investigator
identified approximately a dozen fern spikes within a 10 meter-thick stratigraphic section.  The
section was randomly chosen.
>
> Moral of the story:  By themselves, fern spikes are not indicators of impacts, but when other pieces of
evidence are combined with the palynology data, then the spikes may help identify an environmental
reaction to an impact.
>
(Continue reading)

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Ian Paulsen | 1 Sep 2010 23:37

life reconstruction of Balaur bondoc

HI ALL:
 Are there any reconstructions available for Balaur bondoc? I've seen the
one at wikipedia already.

sincerely
--

-- 

Ian Paulsen
Bainbridge Island, WA, USA
" Which just goes to show that a
  passion for books is extremely unhealthy."
 from Cornelia Funke's "Inkheart".
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Gmane