El cráneo de Concavenator en el 77th Annual Meeting de la SVP

Concavenator ha sido despiezado y repartido por el mundo, los brazos se contaron en Salas de los Infantes, el esqueleto axial viajó hasta Munich en la EAVP y, ahora, la pieza que faltaba: el cráneo, ha viajado hasta Calgary para la SVP. Si, si, viajado literal y es que, como veis en la foto, con Elena y Daniel fue una reconstrucción en formato de bolsillo impresa en 3D (Muchas gracias a los autores de esta impresión).

El trabajo presentado describía las características observadas en el cráneo de Concavenator, definiéndose una serie de sinapomorfías de Carcharodontosauridos y autapomorfías del ejemplar. Además, se realizaba una reconstrucción en 3D a partir de un escaneo por fotogrametría del cráneo. Las partes que no se han preservado en el ejemplar de Concavenator fueron reconstruidas en base a las comparaciones con taxones relacionados como Allosaurus y Acrocanthosaurus. Todo el modelado en 3D fue llevado a cabo con el programa Zbrush.

Para más detalle del trabajo, ahí va el resumen del póster:

Concavenator corcovatus is a carcharodontosaurid dinosaur known from only an almost complete and articulated skeleton, MCCM-LH 6666, from 'Las Hoyas' fossil site (Early Cretaceous, Spain). The fossil is embedded in fine laminated limestone, with only the right elements of the skull visible in lateral view. The skull of Concavenator is almost complete, except for the anteriormost and posteriormost regions, which are broken. Therefore, several posterior skull bones are missing.
Here, a review of the cranial anatomy of Concavenator has been carried out in order to further test its phylogenetic relationships. This included a detailed osteological description of the skull and comparing its features with those of other allosauroids. This description has provided a wide revision of the cranial anatomy of carcharodontosaurids, relevant to their general phylogenetic relationships.
This review shows the skull of Concavenator shares several allosauroid and carcharodontosaurid synapomorphies. Concavenator has, as other allosauroids, i) a low and longitudinal lateral ridged on the dorsolateral rim of the nasal, ii) a low, broad and rugose lacrimal horn, iii) several foramina on lateral surface of the lacrimal, iv) pneumatic recess on the palatine, and v) two posterior foramina on the surangular. Concavenator shares numerous apomorphies with other carcharodontosaurids: i) a lacrimal-postorbital contact, ii) a well-developed postorbital boss, iii) anteroventrally oriented postorbital ventral process, iv) an intraorbital process in the postorbital, v) rostrally projected roughness in the dorsal surface of the postorbital, vi) a notch in the ascending ramus of the maxilla, vii) a sulcus on the anterior margin of the lacrimal ventral ramus, viii) curved dorsal surface of lacrimal, and ix) frontal-parietal fused contact. Finally, Concavenator has two cranial autapomorphies: i) connection between the recess on the lateral surface of the nasal and ii) a rounded morphology of the ventral surface of the postorbital boss. In addition, anatomical comparison mostly with Allosaurus and Acrocanthosaurus, as well as other carcharodontosaurids, has enabled to reconstruct the missing regions of the skull. Here, we propose the first complete 3D reconstruction of the skull of Concavenator, based on the integration of the anatomical data of the clade. The skull model was generated from a superficial photogrammetric scan with the missing information sculpted with CAD software.

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Más información:

• Cuesta, E.; Vidal, D.; Ortega, F.; Sanz, J. L. The Skull of Concavenator corcovatus (Dinosauria: Theropoda) from Las Hoyas (Early Cretaceous, Spain): Osteology and 3D Reconstruction. 77th Annual Meeting of SVP, abstract book, 101.