When the Alioramus
monograph was published back in February this year, it arrived to what appeared
to me to be universal praise and acclaim. For 24 hours it received an extremely
positive press and you would have thought that there would have been a plethora
of discussions and comments at all the usual blogs and websites. But, for
whatever reason, this never actually materialised and the monograph very
quickly disappeared from the palaeoworld front page. In fact the original press
release for Alioramus altai in October
2009 provoked more response and a much greater coverage.
Indeed, I have not seen a single review of this work
anywhere and I’m pretty sure I would have found one by now (but if you have
reviewed this paper, please feel free to send me the detail or link – I would
love to read it). And yet this monograph deserves a much greater press and appreciation
than it has received and I am glad to discuss it further here.
To really understand a dinosaur, or any other extinct animal
for that matter, and provided that the fossil remains are extensive and well
preserved, then you need to read a monograph. This is the only way to get
“under the skin” of an extinct taxon and get a real feel for the very essence
of the beast. Unexpectedly perhaps, modern monographs of tyrannosaurids are
conspicuous by their absence. Indeed, only Brochu’s superb treatment of Tyrannosaurus rex back in 2003 has
broken a very long run of absence.
I first became aware of Alioramus
altai during SVP at Bristol - I remember it very well. It was the Saturday
morning session and we were treated to a string of superb theropod
presentations which featured (amongst many) Dal Sasso’s and Maganuco’s
magnificent work on Scipionyx and
Roger Benson’s very cool work on tetanuran theropods. However, Alioramus altai was soon introduced by
Norell et al and I remembered being
surprised at the completeness of the specimen which was soon reinforced by the
following presentation by the same team describing the braincase of the animal.
Just two presentations later, Phil Currie presented his and Myashita’s new
phylogeny of Tyrannosauroidea which was only new in as much that it more or
less consolidated previous phylogenetic work.
Phil Currie’s passionate discourse when discussing the more
traditional phylogenetic aspects of deep skulled tyrannosaurids was excellent
and I must admit to getting carried away with the occasion and rather
arrogantly dismissed Alioramus as a
tyrannosaurid of very little consequence. But, as I have mentioned in the past,
I now know how wrong of me that was and regret what was said – and even now I
still feel the need to apologise to those concerned.
However, things quickly moved on and Alioramus altai was officially introduced to world in October the
same year. Steve Brusatte, lead author from the American Museum of Natural
History, described Alioramus as when “Compared to Tyrannosaurus, this new animal
is like a ballerina” because of its skeletal pneumatisation and its
obvious gracility. The ballerina quote stuck and featured in nearly news
article about the animal and there was a flood of interest throughout the
palaeoworld and in the public eye generally.
Just over two years later and the monograph of Alioramus altai was published and it is
truly an exceptional document. As I sat
down with it to start reading it I was struck by how much of it there was. At
197 pages in length it was obvious to me
straight away that there had been an extraordinary amount of time and effort in
producing this awesome publication and I was determined to give it a lot of
time and attention – I felt I owed Alioramus
and the authors at least that much. Part 2 soon.
References
Benson, R.B.J. 2009 Middle Jurassic theropods and the early
evolution of Tetanurans (Dinosauria, Theropoda). Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, SVP
Program and Abstracts Book, 2009, Pg.62A.
Bever, G.S.,
Brusatte, S.L., Carr, T.D. and Norell, M.A. 2009. The braincase of a new
tyrannosaurid from the Late Cretaceous of Mongolia. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, SVP
Program and Abstracts Book, 2009, Pg.63A.
Christopher A. Brochu (2003): Osteology of Tyrannosaurus Rex: Insights from a
nearly complete Skeleton and High-Resolution Computed Tomographic Analysis of
the Skull, Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 22:sup4, 1-138.
Stephen L.
Brusatte, Thomas D. Carr, Gregory M. Erickson, Gabe S. Bever, Mark A. Norell
(2009) "A long-snouted, multihorned tyrannosaurid from the Late Cretaceous
of Mongolia". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 106(41):
17261–17266.
Brusatte, S.L.;
Carr, T.D.; Norell, M.A. 2012: The osteology of Alioramus, a gracile and
long-snouted tyrannosaurid (Dinosauria: Theropoda) from the Late Cretaceous of
Mongolia. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, (366) doi: 10.1206/770.1
Dal Sasso, C. and Maganuco, S. 2009. Osteology, ontogenetic
assignment, phylogeny, paleobiology, and soft-tissue anatomy of Scipionyx samniticus. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, SVP
Program and Abstracts Book, 2009, 84A.
Miyashita, T. and
Currie, P.J. 2009. A new phylogeny of the Tyrannosauroidea (Dinosauria,
Theropoda). Journal of Vertebrate
Paleontology, SVP Program and Abstracts Book, 2009, Pg.149A.
Norell, M.A.,
Brusatte, S.L., Carr, T.D., Bever, G.S., and Erickson, G. 2009. A remarkable
long-snouted, multihorned tyrannosaurid from the Late Cretaceous of
Mongolia. Journal of Vertebrate
Paleontology, SVP Program and Abstracts Book, 2009, Pg.155A.
2 comments:
Alioramus was always one of my fave tryrannosaurids. Curious as to what was going on with its forelimbs- were they reduced or more funtional like less derived tyrannosaurs? Oh well, I guess I just have to wait 'til pl 2! Kudos on giving this overlooked gem a thorough look.
Duane
http://antediluviansalad.blogspot.com/
Hi Duane and thanks for the comment. I'm not spoiling anything by saying that there are no forelimb elements preserved in A. altai or, indeed, in the holotype of A. remotus and I share the intrigue.
However, as a derived tyrannosaurine, it is almost certain that Alioramus displayed the same reduced forelimbs as other tyrannosaurids. But, of course, until further remains are found, nothing can be deemed certain.
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