Super sizing the giants: first cartilage preservation at a sauropod dinosaur limb joint

Schwarz, Daniela; Wings, Oliver; Meyer, Christian A.

doi:10.1144/0016-76492006-019

Cited by 48 publications

(42 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…While the osteological limits of motion are the first proxy for the motion capabilities of an extinct animal, many uncertainties exist regarding the limits of bone versus bone motion in the absence of clear bony stops. Archosaur fossils typically preserve very little of the cartilage caps on the articular ends of longbones (Wings et al 2006;Schwarz et al 2007). However, the shape and thickness of the articular cartilage is a factor significantly influencing the articulation of limb joints and their range of motion.…”

Section: Articular Cartilagementioning

confidence: 99%

CAD assessment of the posture and range of motion of Kentrosaurus aethiopicus Hennig 1915

Mallison

2010

Swiss J Geosci

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A computer aided design analysis using highresolution laser scans of the bones of the stegosaur Kentrosaurus aethiopicus HENNIG 1915 from the Late Jurassic Tendaguru Formation indicates that in the habitual walking pose the forelimbs were probably held erect, and that strong humeral flexion and abduction mainly occurred in a defensive stance. Rapid gaits with unsupported phases could not be used. The neck allowed sufficient lateral flexion to guarantee good sight in all directions including posteriorly. The tail covered an arch of roughly 180°and had sufficient range to be used as a weapon. Possibly, the animal could accomplish tail blows against specific targets in sight. Also, a tripodal pose is suggested to have been possible, roughly doubling the maximum vertical feeding height of Kentrosaurus.

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Section: Articular Cartilagementioning

confidence: 99%

CAD assessment of the posture and range of motion of Kentrosaurus aethiopicus Hennig 1915

Mallison

2010

Swiss J Geosci

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“…Nicholls and Russell, 1985;Bonnan, 2001;Carpenter, 2002;Wilhite, 2003;Bonnan and Senter, 2007;Carpenter and Wilson, 2008;Lipkin and Carpenter, 2008). However, despite the increasing importance of obtaining reliable empirical estimates of humeral ROM in dinosaurs, there is disagreement on whether the shoulder and hip joints of various fossil archosaurs would have allowed the extensive in vivo ROMs that some researchers report their fossilized, bony articular surfaces can allow (Bennett, 1991;Bennett, 1997), as well as descriptive and quantitative evidence that the articular cartilage lost in fossil archosaurs may markedly affect skeletonized ROM measurements (Schwarz et al, 2007;Holliday et al, 2010). Thus, there is a need to investigate whether quantitative constraints on in vivo shoulder joint ROM can be determined from the skeletonized shoulder joint ROMs being reported in fossil archosaurs.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using the American alligator and a repeated-measures design to place constraints onin vivoshoulder joint range of motion in dinosaurs and other fossil archosaurs

Hutson

2012

Journal of Experimental Biology

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SUMMARYUsing the extant phylogenetic bracket of dinosaurs (crocodylians and birds), recent work has reported that elbow joint range of motion (ROM) studies of fossil dinosaur forearms may be providing conservative underestimates of fully fleshed in vivo ROM. As humeral ROM occupies a more central role in forelimb movements, the placement of quantitative constraints on shoulder joint ROM could improve fossil reconstructions. Here, we investigated whether soft tissues affect the more mobile shoulder joint in the same manner in which they affect elbow joint ROM in an extant archosaur. This test involved separately and repeatedly measuring humeral ROM in Alligator mississippiensis as soft tissues were dissected away in stages to bare bone. Our data show that the ROMs of humeral flexion and extension, as well as abduction and adduction, both show a statistically significant increase as flesh is removed, but then decrease when the bones must be physically articulated and moved until they separate from one another and/or visible joint surfaces. A similar ROM pattern is inferred for humeral pronation and supination. All final skeletonized ROMs were less than initial fully fleshed ROMs. These results are consistent with previously reported elbow joint ROM patterns from the extant phylogenetic bracket of dinosaurs. Thus, studies that avoid separation of complementary articular surfaces may be providing fossil shoulder joint ROMs that underestimate in vivo ROM in dinosaurs, as well as other fossil archosaurs.Supplementary material available online at http://jeb.biologists.org/content/216/2/275/suppl/DC1

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“…More recently, a well-preserved humerus from the sauropod dinosaur Cetiosauriscus shows thick and extensive fossilized epiphyseal cartilage on its distal end (Schwartz et al, 2007). However, although long bone size may change dramatically after chondroepiphysis removal, it is not clear whether the same trend holds quantitatively for calcified cartilage shape: whereas long bone dimensions will truncate after chondroepiphysis removal, calcified cartilage shape may remain unaffected.…”

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confidence: 99%

Calcified cartilage shape in archosaur long bones reflects overlying joint shape in stress‐bearing elements: Implications for nonavian dinosaur locomotion

Bonnan

Sandrik

Nishiwaki

et al. 2010

The Anatomical Record

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In nonavian dinosaur long bones, the once-living chondroepiphysis (joint surface) overlay a now-fossilized calcified cartilage zone. Although the shape of this zone is used to infer nonavian dinosaur locomotion, it remains unclear how much it reflects chondroepiphysis shape. We tested the hypothesis that calcified cartilage shape reflects the overlying chondroepiphysis in extant archosaurs. Long bones with intact epiphyses from American alligators (Alligator mississippiensis), helmeted guinea fowl (Numida meleagris), and juvenile ostriches (Struthio camelus) were measured and digitized for geometric morphometric (GM) analyses before and after chondroepiphysis removal. Removal of the chondroepiphysis resulted in significant element truncation in all examined taxa, but the amount of truncation decreased with increasing size. GM analyses revealed that Alligator show significant differences between chondroepiphysis shape and the calcified cartilage zone in the humerus, but display nonsignificant differences in femora of large individuals. In Numida, GM analysis shows significant shape differences in juvenile humeri, but humeri of adults and the femora of all guinea fowl show no significant shape difference. The juvenile Struthio sample showed significant differences in both long bones, which diminish with increasing size, a pattern confirmed with magnetic resonance imaging scans in an adult. Our data suggest that differences in extant archosaur long bone shape are greater in elements not utilized in locomotion and related stress-inducing activities. Based on our data, we propose tentative ranges of error for nonavian dinosaur long bone dimensional measurements. We also predict that calcified cartilage shape in adult, stressbearing nonavian dinosaur long bones grossly reflects chondroepiphysis shape.

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Super sizing the giants: first cartilage preservation at a sauropod dinosaur limb joint

Cited by 48 publications

References 13 publications

CAD assessment of the posture and range of motion of Kentrosaurus aethiopicus Hennig 1915

CAD assessment of the posture and range of motion of Kentrosaurus aethiopicus Hennig 1915

Using the American alligator and a repeated-measures design to place constraints onin vivoshoulder joint range of motion in dinosaurs and other fossil archosaurs

Calcified cartilage shape in archosaur long bones reflects overlying joint shape in stress‐bearing elements: Implications for nonavian dinosaur locomotion

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