Afarensis is a 3.5-2.8 million year old hominin from the Kada Hadar member of the Hadar formation in the Middle Awash, Ethiopia. He is approximately 41 inches tall, weighs approximately 60 pounds and has a cranial capacity of a whopping 410 cc (approximately). Afarensis is currently considered to be transitional between apes and humans and displays some traits of both. Since he spends a lot of time on the couch watching monster movies, some observers question whether he is an obligate biped (although no one has observed him climbing a tree). He also has a blog called 
The above is a picture of the skull (a cast actually) of the youngest Triceratops found (to date). According to Science Daily the skull belonged to a year old dinosaur:
Despite the pup's size, its remains are telling Goodwin a lot about how dinosaurs grew, the purpose of their head ornaments and the characteristics of their ancestors. In particular, since the horns and frill are present from a very early age, it is unlikely they were used exclusively for sexual display, he said."The baby Triceratops confirmed our argument that the horns and frill of the skull likely had another function other than sexual display or competition with rivals, which people have often argued, and allows us to propose that they were just as important for species recognition and visual communication in these animals," Goodwin said.
If this reminds you of Jack Horner, you would be correct. Goodwin and Horner are currently studying the growth patterns of Triceratops. I find this next quote interesting in that regard:
The brain case of the baby also changed significantly, he said. Hidden beneath the boney frills of the skull, the hazelnut-sized brain of the baby fit snuggly within protective bones not yet fused, so as to allow further brain growth. In the adult, the brain, about the shape and size of a small sweet potato, was completely encased in fused bones. The relative position of the bones of the braincase as the animal matured recapitulates the cranial evolution of Triceratops from a more basal ancestor, such as Protoceratops.
The recapitulation language bothers me. I'm not sure how to interpret it because I haven't read the article (wouldn't mind having a copy though, if anyone has access to the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology), but I have never heard of recapitulation being applied to anything other than embryos...puzzling.
The importance of the skull, in terms of cranial growth is that in adult Triceratops the cranial bones a completely fused and the sutures largely obliterated. In the juvenile this is not the case - most of the sutures are unfused, which should give researchers (Goodwin, Horner, Padian and Clemens) some interesting insights into the growth of Triceratops
Comments
Hmmm, so what are we calling baby dinosaurs? In this article, I see the word 'pups'. In other instances I've seen the word 'calves' used. Is there some sort of agreement? Maybe there are different terms for different dinos? My vote is for 'dinobits'. :)
Posted by: Dave S. | March 9, 2006 8:44 AM