Many hadrosaur dinosaurs had elaborate structures on their heads that may have been social signals like the horns and antlers of mammals

What predictions can you make about the social behavior of hadrosaurs, and how could you use the fossil record to test those predictions?


This question challenges students to think critically and requires some information that goes beyond the textbook.
A superficial analysis leads to the prediction that hadrosaurs lived in groups?perhaps herds of mixed sexes and ages or perhaps harems consisting of several females and one male or two or more related males. That is a plausible hypothesis, but not the only one. Moose have antlers but they are solitary, so cephalic adornments do not necessarily indicate that a species lived in groups. It is probably safe to infer that the cephalic adornments of hadrosaurs were used during intraspecific interactions and to predict that they were sexually dimorphic, and that is the case for both hadrosaurs (see Chapter 16) and for moose.

Anatomy & Physiology

You might also like to view...

The action of the fibularis (or peroneus) brevis is to

a. supinate and dorsiflex the foot b. pronate the foot and laterally rotate the ankle c. evert and plantar flex the foot

Anatomy & Physiology

The cerebellar cortex consists of folia, which are

a) parallel folds of white matter. b) found in the vermis only. c) portions of the pyramids. d) parallel folds of gray matter. e) used in the RAS system.

Anatomy & Physiology

The lesser omentum is

A) a major portion of the stomach. B) attached to the stomach at the greater curvature. C) important in the digestion of fats. D) a fatty sheet that hangs like an apron over the abdominal viscera. E) a mesentery that extends from the stomach to the liver.

Anatomy & Physiology

Cancer that originates in the lungs is most likely to begin in

A. hyaline cartilage cells. B. dense connective tissue cells. C. epithelial cells. D. smooth muscle cells.

Anatomy & Physiology