Emily J Lessner, Corrine Cranor, R. Hunt-Foster, C. Holliday
{"title":"Endocranial anatomy of Allosaurus supports neural trends among non-avian theropod dinosaurs","authors":"Emily J Lessner, Corrine Cranor, R. Hunt-Foster, C. Holliday","doi":"10.1080/02724634.2023.2236161","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Endocranial cavities preserve a record of neural anatomy often used for hypotheses of behavior in extinct organisms. Two reconstructions of cranial endocasts of Allosaurus fragilis and A. jimmadseni from computed tomography data expand understanding of theropod endocranial anatomy including endocranial volume, inner ear shape, and trigeminal ganglion size. Endocranial and trigeminal ganglion volumes are compared with a sample of birds, crocodylians, and non-avian theropod dinosaurs. Allosaurus is found to have a relatively small trigeminal foramen for its body size when compared with foramina of birds and crocodylians. The inner ear is fragmentary but similar in shape to semicircular canals of other large-bodied theropod dinosaurs. These findings suggest Allosaurus had generalist neural structures relative to other non-avian theropod dinosaurs. Like other large-bodied theropod dinosaurs, Allosaurus likely had a large dural venous sinus, potentially important for brain cooling. Allosaurus did not have a derived sense of facial somatosensation akin to that found in crocodylians or some birds. Additional data like these, collected from other tetanuran dinosaurs, will help clarify the evolution of neurosensory systems in the lineage.","PeriodicalId":17597,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.6000,"publicationDate":"2023-08-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology","FirstCategoryId":"89","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/02724634.2023.2236161","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"PALEONTOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
ABSTRACT Endocranial cavities preserve a record of neural anatomy often used for hypotheses of behavior in extinct organisms. Two reconstructions of cranial endocasts of Allosaurus fragilis and A. jimmadseni from computed tomography data expand understanding of theropod endocranial anatomy including endocranial volume, inner ear shape, and trigeminal ganglion size. Endocranial and trigeminal ganglion volumes are compared with a sample of birds, crocodylians, and non-avian theropod dinosaurs. Allosaurus is found to have a relatively small trigeminal foramen for its body size when compared with foramina of birds and crocodylians. The inner ear is fragmentary but similar in shape to semicircular canals of other large-bodied theropod dinosaurs. These findings suggest Allosaurus had generalist neural structures relative to other non-avian theropod dinosaurs. Like other large-bodied theropod dinosaurs, Allosaurus likely had a large dural venous sinus, potentially important for brain cooling. Allosaurus did not have a derived sense of facial somatosensation akin to that found in crocodylians or some birds. Additional data like these, collected from other tetanuran dinosaurs, will help clarify the evolution of neurosensory systems in the lineage.
期刊介绍:
The Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology publishes original contributions on all aspects of vertebrate paleobiology, including vertebrate origins, evolution, functional morphology, taxonomy, biostratigraphy, phylogenetics, paleoecology, paleobiogeography, and paleoanthropology. JVP publishes high quality peer-reviewed original articles, occasional reviews, and interdisciplinary papers. It is international in scope, and emphasizes both specimen- and field-based based research and the use of high-quality illustrations. Priority is given to articles dealing with topics of broad interest to the entire vertebrate paleontology community and to high-impact specialist studies. Articles dealing with narrower topics, including notes on taxonomic name changes (unless these deal with errors published in JVP), preliminary site reports, and documentation of new specimens of well-known taxa, are afforded lower priority.