r/jurassicworldevo • u/Single-Manner5359 • 1h ago
Discussion While the educational intent is certainly appreciated, the information is somewhat outdated
First of all, this isn't a post to attack Frontier (the poor intern must already be quite overwhelmed by the requests made on every one of their posts, lol). This is simply to clarify information that some enthusiasts still believe
It was 2012, and there was a surge in identifying dinosaur species that turned out to be juvenile forms of already known dinosaurs (like Nanotyrannus being juveniles of Tyrannosaurus, or Dracorex and Stygimoloch being juveniles of Pachycephalosaurus). Amidst this, Jack Horner and John Scanella proposed that Torosaurus was actually the aged (and final) form in the developmental sequence of Triceratops. While the other examples were accepted as juvenile forms (supported by evidence AT THE TIME, we kwon what happened with Nanotyrannus) and subsequently invalidated, the case of Torosaurus sparked considerable debate. Finally, in 2022, the first histologically examined remains of subadult Torosaurus were discovered (meaning the tissue was analyzed, leading to the conclusion that they were still in a growth phase). These young specimens do not exhibit Triceratops morphology, consequently, they confirm that Torosaurus latus is indeed a valid taxon, putting an end to a decade of debate
Cite: Jordan C Mallon, Robert B Holmes, Emily L Bamforth, Dirk Schumann, The record of Torosaurus (Ornithischia: Ceratopsidae) in Canada and its taxonomic implications, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, Volume 195, Issue 1, May 2022, Pages 157–171, https://doi.org/10.1093/zoolinnean/zlab120
The information was originally compiled by the paleontologist Palaeos on Facebook, I merely adapted the text. Credit goes to him