There's No Such Thing As a Duckbilled Dinosaur!

[suspsy]

Darren Naish shatters an old notion about hadrosaurs. This one is essential reading, especially for anyone looking to review a hadrosaur figure.

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/tetrapod-zoology/enough-with-the-duckbilled-dinosaurs/

[SBell]

I just read that. It ruins all of my notions. ALL OF THEM.

Nah, I am not invested in old reconstructions. Interesting to see how long until media--especially books aimed at younger audiences--catch up.

[The Atroxious]

Of course, me being me, I kind of want to run in here and say "Of course there are duckbilled dinosaurs. They're called ducks!"

Regardless, things like this always make me question our interpretation of keratin-based structures on non-avian dinosaurs. I've often thought that people are often too conservative in reconstructing keratinous growths, but this hammers home how drastically the keratin can alter the external appearance.

[Faelrin]

I thought this was going to mention their crazy way of chewing for some reason. But yes hadrosaurs don't essentially have 'duck' bills at all. Of course now I'm wondering what would instead be a good term to use when talking to someone that isn't as well informed/interested about dinosaurs, that doesn't quite know what a hadrosaur is/means.

[Neosodon]

Makes sense. I've always wondered how a family of dinosaur specialized for swampy habitats could be so numerous and wide spread. Maybe fat nosed could be the new nick name.

[amargasaurus cazaui]

Hadropsitticus !

[Lone Trike]

I just recently visited the Senkenberg museum in Frankfurt, Germany and took a look at the mummified Edmontosaurus specimen. It was discovered 1910 and shows a pretty well preserved rhamphotheca!

[Mini Minmi]

And this exactly why I love science so much: things are only true until proven they are different. 
It's a little frustrating for figures that used to be accurate suddenly being outdated but it's a small price to pay for the unique kind of excitement when suddenly your beliefs are shaken.

[Doug Watson]

What is funny is as Naish acknowledges himself at the end of the article this is old news. I used Morris' 1970 paper for my Gryposaurus. Morris, William J. (1970). "Hadrosaurian dinosaur bills — morphology and function". Contributions in Science (Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History) 193: 1–14. and Brian Switek also blogged about it in 2012 (I missed that one).
The only thing I didn't follow was how Morris depicted a smooth outer surface for the beak but since that has not been preserved no one really knows whether it was smooth or not.

[Patrx]

Old news indeed, but a helpful reminder, I guess? Presumably this new entry was written mostly to intersect with the upcoming "debate" with Ford.