Show ' ' W'Vv ' ' ' i " r im y Memo to Spielberg: Lose the lips Dinosaurs never had diem advises paleontologist Lawrence Winner And while you’re at it chop off the cheeks In Winner’s view it’s time lor a makeover and not just for dinosaurs that Hollywood illudino-forille- rs official models with mammalian characteristics that would make reptile recoil in any planet-rulin- g honor dinosaurs subtly familiar or even cute plant-eatin- " Instead Witmer believes these - e e 1 or even cute or ferocious — A' f depending on their expression But too often Winner complains researchers as well as dinosaur illustrators and add features without - V- kmg-standf- flf model-builde- rs determining whether it would be anatomically possible for a hungry Tyrannosaurus rex to smirk as it prepares to kill or for a triceratops to stuff a big chaw of grass in its cheek like a sheep Does it matter? Yes if scientific accuracy counts in a billion-dolldino industry curators of museums and publishers of textbooks as well as makers of films - warm-blood- ed ar Leptoceratops gracilis and toys would have to recast the profiles of their most popular birds But such finds are rare So to make comparisons Witmer must resort to modern beasts that are the closest living relatives at the' dinosaurs “You have to understand how these systems work — in all their gory detail” he says “We petih ally look how animal ft Put together add how they compare with dinosaurs” Much of paleontology so far ' has been related to geology he adds but now scientists are asking questions that are much more biological Take lips Scientists endorsed extinct stats “Subconsciously when we see the fossils of a duckbilled dinosaur many people can’t help but think of a moose Or when we look at a triceratops we think of a rhino” says Witmer who teaches comparative anatomy at Ohio University in Athens Ohio “But lean find no scientific ' justiftcationiie says “I know that we’re overturning some cherished notions about these creatures” No kidding Even Witmer’s old son Sam accuses daddy y “He asked me if all this means that he has to stop playing with his dinosaur toys” Witmer says “I’m mote interested in the science There is a more serious the idea of dino lips because dinosaur jaws contain rows of holes called foramina Blood ves- sets and nerves ran through such disciplined way to determine how these animals iooked” To Witmer getting serious 5 li gra-ci- bfed-Mk- long-gon- ' Starting fnday Mulan c G Amegcditon ARMAGEDDON fM IMmMIM PRACTICAL MAGIC DR DOOLITTLE wremw SMALL SOLDIERS wriMutmui rui PARENTTRAPre MisMHrt4a(w LETHAL WEAPON IV - ta- t m:4 OOjp SIX DAYS SEVEN NIGHTS VtNIKtitHJin j OOtHUDKENiO Rf?iirrnrn(iCAn5vAiuiit howIS Cache Valley Civic Ballet Presents tow - THE NUTCRACKER J GnettSur Stepan Novkavicb ' £"' Performed with the Serbian Ndtiomd Theetre in Yugosimut - ‘ V '' 'M' Ellen EcdesIheNotre 43 S Main 9 Logan Friday Nm 27 730 Saturday New 28 7 pm & 730 fm Monday Ned 30 730fm : 0 Tkfoetsoriiaieai1he "" IHeatre Box Office v T- 6 Cal Tickets priced & ‘ia U2 Diteemati far Oriidrem Stmdemta SemUn aad Greape eft Sari 35 family Ticket : ' 752-002- (fimitml 5 efem tearing 5V ticket foe per emttemer eharged hytheEtdee Theatre) - m rs - bird-flk-a " ) Mammalian features such as fleshy lips and cheeks make the dinosaurs appear subtly familiar Bin Nufomcksr plant-eate- tank-size- depending on their expression j Jg - In doing so they belicvC cheeks helped herbivores to thrive mid perhaps pushed less ' to die efficient But Witmer has compared their dull with those of many large' mammals Unlike g i mammal the dinosaurs lack the bony attachments that enable mammals' cheeks to work : or ferocious — EFO cles enabling the animals to S' graze' ?? '£- : cheeks make the 5H0W1 d mus- - unusual jaw-lin- q grooves are Imuch larger versions of similar ' attachment points lor the power-fi- ll He concedes that this is “a curved beaks on birds of prey shop of honors” Sometimes the and snapping turtles" An enor- biomedical researchers down the ? v AP'phate't’mnus beak attached to a pair of 5 ysr ' hall complain about ghastly odon ' ' foot jaws would act like giant seeping from beneath his door Paleontologist Lawrence Witmer dtoptaye Some of Ns research subjects In Na lab at ONq Unjvareftyln Aftens allowing these But to Witmer it’s all about Ohio In October WMmer la challenging the common perceptions of dnosauV appearance saying they moat Hce yardd clippers herbivores to snap and soft tissues and bow they con- - ly had f beaks Instead of Ips and cheeks In drawing below the head of the dinosaur Leptocwafeps gulp entire leafy trees nect to bones to form a whole reflects features more than the traditional mammaflan teaturae edentate have for decades allotted to That’s a more plausible meal creatures the being’ than a triceratops languidly Muscles nerves cartilage and its cud he says chewing organs are the most perishable we knew how “We thought ' and elusive of dinosaur leftovers foeseunimals ate but maybe we Yet they provide the evidence Witmer “If you don’t” says that researchers need to flesh out ' : ' ‘3 dinosaurs’ closest livat the look add settle their bony models ing relatives — birds crocs and controversies such lizards — - they all lack muscular warmas whether dinosaurs were ' cheeks” blooded and if they were the Now Witmer has turned his ancestors of buds attention to dinosaur noses Last November Oregon State Skulls of three groups of University paleontologist John dinosaurs — triceratops bronRuben found a dinosaur fossil in " ' V i'H-tosaurs and duckbills — have China with superbly preserved nostrils up to two feet deep organs Its lungs he asserted He’s examining a variety of i'-- yy could not have processed enough Seal that iises large nostrils tp ioxygen to sustain a inflate a fleshy hood during creature And its diaphragm he said courtship rituals He’s also lookheart and the ing at tapirs and other mammals neatly separated to see if foe dinosaurs share nasal from a like other organs lungs muscular cheei features that would support s promodern crocodile and unlike Mammalian features such as fleshy lips and 733-3- 1 pro-vide- attachments for cheek technology X-r- ay ' triceratops and stegosaurs have ' long dents running along their sides of the jaws Researchers have assumed the grooves that hospitals usually reserve for patients His laboratory at times contains a gruesome smorgasbord: hones heads seal snouts crocodile jaws jest in the refrigerator A bisou head simmers in a pot on a stove Bones new white and ancient brown pile up awaiting closer inspection Park” and other Scientists too clutter their paleo-heres- eratelyfi-- vThe jaws of dinosaurs such as structures Or lie scans them with sionists such as Steven Spielberg have resurrected in “Jurassic sophisticated of cheeks allow'cowy to graze driib- - means reaching into his subject “up to the dhows” For comparisons with fossils he dissects scores of carcasses supplied by government agencies slaughterhouses and other 'uitharizedioiiicef He strips and boils die flesh off the bones of tnodem mammals great and smalL He takes a band saw and slices their puts like salami to expose fine internal ByJoaeph B Verrangia AP science writer a great way to kick of X hoWay seam Trecffafrdytooneofthedpedbmmteidurlnow" twffiankigMnowMhBndi 4Buyyoutlckefreartyfcrbesttelectloa 1‘ -- i' 7 rf® boscis C’moa A dinosaur with a trunk? l bone passages supplying mammalian Ups widrextm Mood and nerve impulses for enbancedsea-sathkk- h! The problem Witmer says is that the dinosaurs’ aren’t located in the tion as in mammal help he turned to the foramina same posi- jaws For at anatomy other creatures that are biologically closer to dinosaurs Docs turtles eagles and other beaked creatures have foramina tea But they don’t have lips that pucker up Lizards don’t have cheeks into the same cosmetic lips at all They Jiave band of category :VTa biologists cheeks represent Jignifkant evolutionary mg salivary gfoada£&-So Witmer concludes no lips on dinosaurs The whole subject is a novelty he admits “Lips or no lips’’ he says fero“tyrannosaurus rex was ' cious” : But don’t lump dinosaur - - V progressL o: be'eut rtJril Mammals use muscular cheeks to control chewing and guide food while swallowing That’s precisely Winner's point Most people seek familiar images because they have difficulty imagining how bizarre dinosaurs probably appeared as they once ruled the same Manet Such t ' Vi ome of them are so weird looking” he says “we have difficulty telling the front end from the back” ' - |