The Loneliness of Isauria.

Following my visit to Mexico, Ricardo Servín Pichardo‘s reconstruction of Isauria (Latirhinus uistlani) from Formación del  Cerro del Pueblo, Parras, Coahuila brought  to the fore the amount of pathologies previously described in much detail by  Angel Alejandro Ramírez Velasco. According to Angel’s thesis (Patologías Oseas en Dinosaurios Mexicanos; un Estudio Comparativo. México 2013),  Isauria survived a lesion (congenital or fracture) to  the left hand, that fused two metacarpals and distorted the hand but at the end healed.

But finally, the real reason Isauria   died  was of the injuries to his right leg, a fracture that in time deformed the fibula and shin bone,  generating a new pathological “hooked bone” and a tendonitis that made it drag its leg until the animal finally could not move, could not eat or drink. A phenomenon observed also in modern birds.

I envisaged the first artwork as Isauria laying down with scavengers and predators awaiting its slow demise… but I decided instead of depicting the lonely death of a dinosaur in the shores of an inner sea or river.

Here’s a new version of the previously blogged image… with further corrections by Ricardo and Angel.

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