And not a particularly satisfying one, either. It's been suggested that I look at turtles and tortoises for skin ideas. This croc stuff may not be the best route to go.
No, I think more of a lizard skin could be better. Come take some pictures of Big Boss. The leopard gecko's smooth skin is a derived feature for living in the desert. Big Boss has big overlapping scales, which I think could work better for Euparkeria. Remember, we're just assuming that crurotarsians (and archosaurs) had scaley bony skin to begin with, but that could just be a derived condition of modern crocodilians.
Dermal ossicles (not pictured), at least, are known for Euparkeria, and, of course, many other early archosaurs had osteoderms, so I think it's probably likelier that this is an inherited rather than derived condition for crocs, although just not to the same extent as we see on crocs.
But the rest of the skin--yeah. I need to look at other groups. What do you say to a Friday or Sunday visit?
2 comments:
No, I think more of a lizard skin could be better. Come take some pictures of Big Boss. The leopard gecko's smooth skin is a derived feature for living in the desert. Big Boss has big overlapping scales, which I think could work better for Euparkeria. Remember, we're just assuming that crurotarsians (and archosaurs) had scaley bony skin to begin with, but that could just be a derived condition of modern crocodilians.
Dermal ossicles (not pictured), at least, are known for Euparkeria, and, of course, many other early archosaurs had osteoderms, so I think it's probably likelier that this is an inherited rather than derived condition for crocs, although just not to the same extent as we see on crocs.
But the rest of the skin--yeah. I need to look at other groups. What do you say to a Friday or Sunday visit?
Post a Comment