SVP

Well, now that exams are over, I have time to update my site. Last week was the infamous meeting for the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology. In addition to much frivolity there were some very interesting talks and posters presented. Several come to mind right off the bat. One of the more interesting talks was given by Nick Longrich, a fellow that I was privilaged enough to discuss problems in paleontology with over the summer while both of us were at the Royal Tyrrell Museum. His talk "Archaeopteryx: two wings or four?" discussed his observations that archaeoptery posessed a set of flight aiding feathers on its hind limbs. Much of his observations came from the berlin specimen and its counterblock which also preserved many excellent feather impressions. While these leg feathers were not as extensive as those of the forelimb which have been classically recognised, it does show that the four wing design is basal to all birds, even if not as expressed as in microraptor. Other observations on hip structure have also shown that it was infact more possible for birds to glide with the limbs in a splayed position than previously thought.
Another excellent talk was on the changing views on evolution and paleontology in the works of Mark Twain. There were also several excellent talks on ceratosaurs, and on new species of Allosaurs, as well as a jouvenille allosaur specimen preserving most of the skull. An intreguing poster demonstrated that the gorgosaur skull at the Childrens Museum of Pitsburg shows what appears to be a tumor within its brain case.
The theme of this years dinosaur talks however seemed to be CT scanning. Nearly everybody is trying to CT scan all of their fossils. While this is very interesting technology, I question the necessity of such expensive techniques. dozens of people made references to how they used extremely expensive software, normally reserved for the movie industry, to make their 3-D models. The set up costs alone are astronomical. A couple of guys made 3-D models of a dynonychus arm so that they could demonstrate how it moved. The didn't however have time to measure the accuracy of their techniques by reproducing the methods with other extant animals. Therefore, their results may be accurate, but we can't be sure. Despite all of this, dozens of people flocked to ask them questions simply because of the cool factor inherent in their work. While I commend dinosaur science for being the first to use such techniques, I think that hte paleontologyical comunity should realize that computing power should not limit the quality of research being done, particularly if the computing is done at the expence of more inclusive research methods.