Majungasaurus is one cool theropod. Not only does is have a neat, knobby skull but the numerous remains of this dinosaur allowed for an entire series of papers on it to appear in the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology Memoirs. Although it is hardly a household name quite a bit is known about this predator from the ancient sediments of Madagascar, and the Witmer Lab has recently put up some really cool 3D animations of cutting planes through the skull of Majungasaurus;
There's also some cool video of sagittal slices through the skull of Majungasaurus;
You can expect to be hearing more about this Madagascar monster in the near future; it is the star of the first episode of "Jurassic Fight Club" (it's called Majungatholus in the show, now recognized to be a junior synonym). The History Channel was kind enough to give me a sneak peek at what the rest of you will be seeing on July 29th, and even though I was at first a little apprehensive given the network's track record for poor science programming there is a lot to like about it. I still have a few gripes (surprise, surprise), but you'll have to wait just a little bit longer before I can give you a hit-by-hit summary of the blood-spattered programming.
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Cool stuff! Majungasaurus (still getting used to using that name instead of Manjungatholus) is among my favorite theropods simply for offering such a complete glimpse into the nature of Gondwanan theropods at the tail end of the Cretaceous.
Complete skeletons, complete skulls, several individuals, notable pathologies...you can't ask for much more from one taxon!
I'm surprised that the name went back to the type's. I guess it was diagnostic enough, but...I liked Majungatholus more.
I'm looking forward to seeing the finished product. Although I'm in 83% of the episodes this season, I have seen very little of the animation and none of the other interviewer's comments.
I was filmed addressing the -saurus/-tholus nomenclature issue (which I knew was pending back in May of 2007, when most of the interviews were filmed), but I don't know if it got into the documentary.