DINOSAURS just got a rhinoplasty. The century-old assumption that their
nostrils were high on their heads is wrong. Their nostrils were probably much
closer to the tip of the snout.
Lawrence Witmer of Ohio University took skull X-rays of 45 of today’s
animals, including dinosaurs’ close living relatives, such as birds. He then
compared the location of the flesh and bone around the nostrils. In nearly every
case, the nostrils were near the mouth. This must be a good design, he says,
since it has survived in modern animals. “This kind of conservation is very
rare, because evolution is such…
