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Qilong — The Strange Case of Dr. Masiaka and Mr. Vicious
by-nc-nd
Published: 2012-10-31 07:15:32 +0000 UTC; Views: 1765; Favourites: 55; Downloads: 0
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Description
A skull reconstruction of the small noasaurid theropod Masiakasaurus knopfleri, known from the latest Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) of Madagascar.I'd like to think that this skull is pretty accurate, but seeing as how its built from many different specimens, each potentially a different individual and not all the same size or likely age, it's hard to say "that's it, that's perfect, no more left to do." There are dozens of little decisions and choices I made in "building" this skull from the pieces, which i detail in part here -- [link] -- but it is sufficient to say that this look is pretty different from what has been reconstructed before.
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Comments: 7
It's been well over a decade since I got to ogle the pieces myself, but, in my humble opinion, your reconstruction here trumps the other attempts thus far. This skull is more or less what I always envisioned it to be. Very awesome to see.
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Thanks! I may have to make some modifications with feedback so far, but it doesn't seem to be changing much.
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That's a ton of different specimens. Glad I caught the downwards upper jaw 6 years ago. I really hate seeing people do this animal with both snouts facing outwards.
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wow. very interesting to say the least.
isn't it amazing how gracile the skull is and how massive the lower jaw is?
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There's a good chance the jaw was the primary food-procurer of sorts, rather than a dual upper/lower jaw pair, although would also be true, just that the mandible was primary. I do envision a mandible-based grab and pull or lift model as a possibility that bears testing.
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