Enriquez Nathan James, Campione Nicolás E, Hendrickx Christophe, Bell Phil R
School of Environmental and Rural Science, University of New England, Armidale, New South Wales, Australia.
Dinosauria Lab, Fundación Miguel Lillo, Tucumán, Argentina.
J Anat. 2025 Aug;247(2):250-283. doi: 10.1111/joa.14247. Epub 2025 Mar 18.
Epidermal scales in sauropsids perform a wide array of biological functions, which can relate to their shape and size. Accordingly, growth-related changes in scale morphology may reflect distinct functions between juvenile and adult individuals, such as use in mating interactions. Such patterns are poorly explored in both extant reptiles and non-avian dinosaurs, limiting functional interpretations. Here, we investigate scale growth in the ornithischian ceratopsid Chasmosaurus belli and hadrosaurid Prosaurolophus maximus by comparing scale morphologies between juveniles and adults of each taxon. Scale shape is generally consistent across growth stages in both taxa, and changes in C. belli feature scale length cannot reject isometry. However, there is a greater increase in C. belli feature scale width. In practical terms, the magnitude of these size differences rejects the hypothesis that feature scale morphology played a role in mating interactions, suggesting instead that their size was largely non-adaptive. To contextualise the patterns in the sampled dinosaurs, we assessed scale growth and allometry using an ecologically diverse sample of eight extant reptile species belonging to Crocodylidae, Scincidae, Elapidae and Pythonidae. While isometry is the overall most frequent pattern of scale growth in our sample of extant reptiles, most species demonstrate positive scale allometry in at least one area of their bodies, which is likely a response to changing body proportions. Scale shapes in the studied extant species, as in both dinosaurs, are largely retained through growth. This study provides the first detailed assessment of skin growth in non-avian dinosaurs, supporting morphological stasis in the growth of most of their scales.
蜥形纲动物的表皮鳞片具有多种生物学功能,这可能与其形状和大小有关。因此,鳞片形态与生长相关的变化可能反映了幼年和成年个体之间不同的功能,比如在交配互动中的作用。在现存爬行动物和非鸟类恐龙中,这种模式都鲜有研究,这限制了对其功能的解读。在此,我们通过比较每个分类单元幼年和成年个体的鳞片形态,研究了鸟臀目角龙科的贝利开角龙和鸭嘴龙科的大原栉龙的鳞片生长情况。在这两个分类单元中,鳞片形状在不同生长阶段总体上是一致的,贝利开角龙特征鳞片长度的变化不排除等比生长。然而,贝利开角龙特征鳞片宽度的增加幅度更大。实际上,这些大小差异的程度否定了特征鳞片形态在交配互动中起作用的假设,相反表明它们的大小在很大程度上是非适应性的。为了将所研究恐龙的模式置于背景中,我们使用了来自鳄科、石龙子科、眼镜蛇科和蟒科的八个现存爬行动物物种的生态多样样本,评估了鳞片生长和异速生长。虽然等比生长是我们现存爬行动物样本中鳞片生长最常见的总体模式,但大多数物种在其身体的至少一个部位表现出正的鳞片异速生长,这可能是对身体比例变化的一种反应。在所研究的现存物种中,鳞片形状与两种恐龙一样,在生长过程中基本保持不变。这项研究首次对非鸟类恐龙的皮肤生长进行了详细评估,支持了它们大多数鳞片在生长过程中形态保持不变的观点。