SVP 2015

[Deleted]

Here: SVP 2015

Some pretty interesting abstracts in there. Possible remnants of soft tissue in Dreadnoughtus, vision fields in sauropods, egg colors in dinosaurs, Spinosaurus swimming, and a two-fingered therizinosaur...

Also, the quill knobs on Concavenator really are quill knobs based on myological reconstruction.

[stomatopod]

NEW GIANT LATE CRETACEOUS CROCODYLIFORM WITH FEEDING
ADAPTATIONS CONVERGENT ON SPINOSAURIDS
LARSSON, Hans C., McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada, H3A 0C4; SERENO,
Paul C., University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, United States of America; EVANS, David
C., Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, ON, Canada
A new giant crocodyliform was discovered in two localities in the Sahara of
Cenomanian age, the Kem Kem beds in Morocco and the Echkar Formation in Niger.
The new taxon represents a late-surviving relative of the longirostrine crocodyliform
Stolokrosuchus from mid-Cretaceous rocks in Niger. Features shared by these presumed
sebecids include unique modifications to the narial region and anterior tooth occlusion.
The incisive foramen is greatly expanded and the chamber dorsal to the foramen opens
anteriorly through a midline foramen between the anterior premaxillary midline suture.
This morphology presumably housed a vomeronasal organ, a sensory organ absent in
extant crocodylians. A hypertrophied tusk-like first dentary tooth occludes into a deep
recess on the premaxilla. The remaining premaxillary and anterior dentary teeth interlock
to create a unique tight fitting anterior tooth rosette.
The new taxon converges with the contemporary theropod Spinosaurus in size and
in several features of the snout. Convergences include the presence of a terminal rosette
of teeth, elongate, laterally compressed, and gently down-sloping snout, recurved
concical teeth, and gigantic skull size. Total skull length approached two meters and
makes this crocodyliform one of the largest to have existed. Skull length is comparable to
or even exceeds that of the giant piscivorous Spinosaurus. The presence of two gigantic,
presumably piscovorous taxa is explained by the diverse fish fauna of these formations.


^This is my favourite.

[Infinity Blade]

I guess it looks like Spinosaurus had some serious competition...

[blaze]

That's.... awesome

But I wonder what are the proportions of the skull, Stomatosuchus also has an skull at least 2m long but the snout is very elongated that it most likely wasn't any bigger, and perhaps smaller, than the other contenders for biggest crocodyliform tittle.

[Deleted]

It was stated to be similar to Stolokrosuchus, a basal neosuchian.

The only images of it's skull I could find is the one from paleofile.com, and I don't know how reliable this is:

[blaze]

Accurate, seems to be traced from the figures in the description paper (which I have just found), snout length is 80.5% of DCL, that's intermediate between Stomatosuchus (84%) and gharials (75%).

BTW we will do like las t year and not talk (too much, or more, since we already started) about the abstracts until the conference happens? damn it, it's over a month away.

[theropod]

No idea what’s the point about this "embargo" they put in place. They don’t want people to disclose information in the abstracts, claiming it is to protect the authors, and yet they publish the entire abstract book online themselves, freely accessible for anyone to read? I don’t get it.

Anyway, if you want to kill time until then, discuss SVPCA. It’s starting in 3 days and I don’t think they have a similar rule. Also, I’m going to be there, so let me know if anything is of particular interest to you.

[blaze]

Also, at least one of the abstracts has already been formally published, that seems weird.

[stomatopod]

The embargo is mostly for the media.
And taking footage of the prestations is prohibited as that disables them from being published in higher profile journals.

And I counted 4 already published papers.

[blaze]

Which ones have already been published? aside from Brassey and Gardiner.

[theropod]

Filming the presentations being prohibited is totally understandable, I wouldn’t want someone to film me unasked either. I was talking about discussing the content of abstracts that they themselves published for anyone to see. and I don’t think it makes any difference who it is who does that.

It just seems ridiculous.

[stomatopod]

blaze, I have to look again, may take some time xD

theropod, I think the embargo is mostly meant for the public media, and to Prozent the presenters from criticism before presenting their work. Some seem Petersesque to me.

[Fragillimus335]

The croc looks awesome, can't wait for illustrations/photos. Also, supersonic Apatosaurus tail model looks fun.

[theropod]

Apparently the tail isn't everything. Imagine it fighting rivals using its neck like an elephant seal, with massive ventroflexors and possibly spikes or horns emerging from the parapophyses. Also quite a deterrent to any theropod trying to get to its throat.

Check page 71 of the svpca abstracts!

[blaze]

Following SVP 2015 on Twitter, Holtz tweeted that the giant Stolokrosuchus-like form has e155cm long skull, I don't feel like that counts as "approaching 2" as the abstract described it, I was thinking of something in the 180-190cm range.