Fights and Skulls

The skull of Aucasaurus is damaged. Perhaps not all of their skulls ever, but the type specimen is most definitely damaged. This damage has lead to speculation that the animal in question was in a fight prior to its death and that the fight may even be the cause of the death of this dinosaur. Despite the damage done and the speculation surrounding the skull of Aucasaurus, an article that was published in Acta Paleontologica Polonica only a few weeks ago contains scans of the braincase of Aucasaurus and discusses inner ear morphology and endocranial morphology of Aucasaurus. The ear and brain scans reveal a dinosaur that was capable of moving its head about quite a bit more than other Abelisaurids without sever consequences. I forgot about this paper yesterday, but then remembered that I had the image of the brain scan on my desktop. It can be read online at the link provided above and is very much worth the time it takes to read it.

Ariana Paulina-Carabajal and Cecilia Succar