Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T15:00:09.605Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Paleoneurology: Reconstructing the Nervous Systems of Dinosaurs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 July 2017

Emily B. Giffin
Emily B. Giffin*
Affiliation:
Department of Biological Sciences, Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA 02181
Get access

Extract

The most tangible clues to the existence and lifestyle of extinct vertebrates are the fossilized bones preserved in sedimentary rocks. During the past two hundred years, scientists have excavated, prepared and reassembled the often fragmentary remains of dinosaurs, enabling them to reconstruct the size, proportions and general anatomy of these Mesozoic reptiles. However, the information available from the bones is not restricted to details of the hard tissues themselves. Bone is a living tissue that interacts with the soft tissues of the body and retains evidence of this interaction after death. As a result, paleontologists are able to use preserved bones and other hard tissues to predict traits of physiological processes and of soft tissues. Prime examples of this approach have been the attempts to predict the thermal regime of dinosaurs. Histological structure of bone has been shown to vary with thermal regime in living vertebrates (Ricqles, 1976; Reid, 1987), and the preserved fine-structure of fossilized dinosaur bone has allowed direct comparison with the bone of living vertebrates. Other examples of reconstruction of lifestyle and soft tissues from bony remains include use of the muscle scars on dinosaur bone to predict size and orientation of muscles (Gatesy, 1990), and of dentition and jaw geometry to predict dietary regime (Weishampel and Norman, 1989).

Type
Adaptations and Behavior
Information
The Paleontological Society Special Publications , Volume 7: Dino Fest , 1994 , pp. 229 - 242
Copyright
Copyright © 1994 Paleontological Society 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alexander, R. McN. 1989. Dynamics of Dinosaurs and Other Extinct Giants. Columbia University Press, New York. 167 pp.Google Scholar
Anderson, J. F., Hall-Martin, A., and Russell, D. A. 1985. Long bone circumference and weight in mammals, birds and dinosaurs. Journal of Zoology (A), 207: 53–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crile, G. and Quiring, D. P. 1940. A record of the body weight and certain organ and gland weights of 3690 animals. Ohio Journal of Science, 40:219–259.Google Scholar
DeGennaro, L. D. 1982. The glycogen body. pp. 341–371 in Farner, D. S., King, J. R. and Parkes, K. C., eds., Avian Biology, volume 6. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Edinger, T. 1961. Anthropocentric misconceptions in paleoneurology. Proceedings of the Rudolf Virchow Medical Society of New York, 19: 56–107.Google Scholar
Gatesy, S. M. 1990. Caudofemoral musculature and the evolution of theropod locomotion. Paleobiology, 16:170–186.Google Scholar
Giffin, E. B. 1990. Gross spinal anatomy and limb use in living and fossil reptiles. Paleobiology, 16 (4): 448–458.Google Scholar
Giffin, E. B. 1991. Endosacral enlargements in dinosaurs. Modern Geology, 16: 101–112.Google Scholar
Giffin, E. B. in press a. Functional interpretation of spinal anatomy in living and fossil amniotes. In Functional Morphology and Vertebrate Paleontology. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Giffin, E. B. in press b. Postcranial paleoneurology of diapsids. Journal of Zoology (London).Google Scholar
Hopson, J. A. 1977. Relative brain size and behavior in archosaurian reptiles. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics, 8: 429–448.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hopson, J. A. 1979. Paleoneurology. pp. 39–146 in Gans, C., ed., Biology of the Reptilia, volume 9. Academic Press, London.Google Scholar
Jerison, H. J. 1973. Evolution of the Brain and Intelligence. Academic Press, New York. 482 pp.Google Scholar
Kusuma, A., ten Donkelaar, H. J. and Neiuwenhuys, R. 1979. Intrinsic organization of the spinal cord. pp. 59–109 in Gans, C., Northcutt, R. G. and Ulinski, P., eds., Biology of the Reptilia, volume 10. Academic Press, London.Google Scholar
Marsh, O. C. 1881. Principal characters of American Jurassic dinosaurs. Part IV. Spinal cord, pelvis and limbs of Stegosaurus . American Journal of Science, 21 (3): 167–170.Google Scholar
Molnar, R. E. and Farlow, J. O. 1990. Carnosaurian paleobiology. pp. 210–224 in Weishampel, D. B., Dodson, P. and Osmolska, H., ed., The Dinosauria. University of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Reid, R. E. H. 1987. Bone and dinosaur “endothermy.” Modern Geology 11: 271–280.Google Scholar
Rewcastle, S. C. 1981. Stance and gait in tetrapods: an evolutionary scenario. pp. 239–267 in Day, M. H., ed., Vertebrate Locomotion. New York, Academic Press.Google Scholar
Ricqles, A. J. de. 1976. On bone histology of fossil and living reptiles, with comments on its functional and evolutionary significance. Linnean Society Symposium 3: 123–150.Google Scholar
Romer, A. S. and Parsons, T. S. 1977. The Vertebrate Body. W. B. Saunders, Philadelphia. 624 pp.Google Scholar
Weishampel, D. B. and Norman, D. B. 1989. Vertebrate herbivory in the Mesozoic; jaws, plants, and evolutionary metrics. Geological Society of America Special Paper 238: 87–100.Google Scholar