Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Dinosaurs of all ilks bow and pay tribute to Peter Dodson, their intrepid chronicler, in an Anatomical Record Special Issue in his honor

2023; Wiley; Volume: 306; Issue: 7 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1002/ar.25233

1932-8494

Jeffrey T. Laitman, Heather F. Smith,

Morphological variations and asymmetry

Amazing how even after half of a century some things do not change. Together again at the University of Pennsylvania, Peter Dodson and editorial co-author JL are energetically talking about six things at once, catching up as old friends are wont to do. Walking along the beautiful, tree-lined, quiet of Locust walk, topics bounce from new dinosaur finds, to what the children (and grandchildren!) are up to, to which of our body parts are the latest to stop working well (hey, we have known each other for some 50 years!). As has been the case since our days together at Yale, JL is lagging behind as Peter's energy, now as back in New Haven, has him moving ever faster than his old anatomy table mate. "C'mon, Jeff," the august Penn Prof admonishes, "we finally get an audience with Professor Leidy, and let's not be late!" Yes, indeed. We have finally arranged a formal audience to see Professor Joseph Leidy, or, more specifically, his brain. For those of you who are not acquainted with Professor Leidy (shame, shame!), he was America's first dinosaur paleontologist of note, having reported and named (in 1858 and 1865; Leidy, 1858, 1865) the first American dinosaur, the "duck-billed" Hadrosaurus, unearthed in New Jersey (and you thought the state's only remains of note were those of Mob boss Jimmy Hoffa!). Subsequently, Leidy reconstructed Hadrosaurus at the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences in 1868, the first museum display of any dinosaur. He estimated it to be 25 ft long and, based on its small forelimbs and long hind limbs, gave it a "kangaroo-like" stance with a semi-upright posture. Indeed, this vertical position became the image of dinosaurs imprinted in our collective visualization that remains to this day (see Dodson, 2009 for discussion). Leidy's day job was as the Professor of Anatomy at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine (the first in the United States), and he was a polymath of such renown that his biographer boldly titled his story, Joseph Leidy: The Last Man Who Knew Everything (Warren, 1999). Indeed, when the parent organization of The Anatomical Record, the American Association for Anatomy was formed in 1888 (originally named the Association of American Anatomists, today seen as an exclusionary banner, but done then to highlight specifically the emergence of American—over European—science), Professor Leidy was unanimously chosen its first President, in absentia no less. He was seen by many as the embodiment of an American scientist, the greatest of his day. There are giants and then there are GIANT giants, and our Professor Leidy falls into the latter category (Figure 1). And this brings us back to another titan of his science, and the reason for this Special Issue, JL's fast moving colleague, Peter Dodson. Like his Penn ancestor, Peter (our ties are too close for continued formalities here) is a giant among dinosaurs, not an easy feat if you think about it. His contributions to understanding the world of dinosaurs—from his paleontological findings, scholarly writings, museum exhibit creations, and birthing of superb progeny—have made him stand out in the world of dinosaur science. Indeed, Peter has given much to our own journal, being a frequent contributor (e.g., Dodson, 2003, 2009, 2020; Hedrick et al., 2020, 2022; Schachner et al., 2009, 2011; Tumanova et al., 2023), and Guest Editing two of the most popular Special Issues in our history, "Unearthing the Anatomy of Dinosaurs: New Insights into their Functional Morphology and Paleobiology" (Dodson, 2009; Laitman, 2009; Laitman & Albertine, 2009) and "The Hidden World of Dinosaurs" (Hedrick & Dodson, 2020; Laitman & Albertine, 2020; Figure 2). The 2009 Special Issue, our first on dinosaurs, was so much in demand that our Publisher, Wiley, had to print additional copies for individual sale (Dodson Dinos make money, at least for Wiley!) Beyond the quality of his science, Peter has been given a gift that he has shared with those of us fortunate to be his student, mentee, or colleague: his boundless goodness and caring. This "Dodsoness" quality has spanned his career and has touched many. Indeed, editorial co-author JL has written previously on how Peter's kindness helped him as an insecure and shy (no comments out there, please!). Yale graduate student to survive his overwhelming fears at the onset of his own path (see Laitman, 2017). More to our point here is how his own dinosaur-philic graduate students and mentees have grown and prospered in significant part due to his loving guidance. This current special, Special Issue, "Dinosaurs: New Ideas from Old Bones" (Fiorillo et al., 2023) has been meticulously Guest-edited by three who have learned their craft upon poppa Dodson's knee as his graduate students: Anthony Fiorillo, Executive Director of the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science; Catherine Forster, Professor of Geology and of Biology at George Washington University; and David Weishampel, Professor of Functional Anatomy and Evolution at Johns Hopkins University. These three have themselves had extraordinary careers in the multifaceted world of dinosaur paleontology and biology, and have been referred to as "the Big Three" of PD's students (by Catherine; oy!, I can hear the growls from other PD progeny!). As we write this, Tony is likely thoroughly enjoying the warmth of New Mexico, having spent a good part of his career studying arctic dinosaurs (equally cold is that, sadly, he never achieved his childhood dream of playing center field for the New York Yankees; hey, Tony, they have not won a World Series since 2009 so you still might have a chance!); Catherine, Tony's graduate student office mate at Penn (she helped him in his dissertation field-work and he repaid her kindness by being her occasional dog-sitter), followed directly Poppa Dodson's love by embracing horned dinosaurs for much of her prolific career; and Dave, Peter's first graduate student gaining his PhD in 1981, and thus placing him as the "first" among all PD progeny (all others always compare themselves to one's first student—and usually wince when their name is mentioned!) has had a marvelous path, within which he authored what many consider the definitive work on dinosaurs, the Dinosauria (Weishampel et al., 2007), and was even a consultant for his friend Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park series (wonder if he got free tickets to the movies?). While this extraordinarily successful trio have known each other since the Cretaceous, this is the first time they have come together on a major project. HS and JL get a big smile out of the fact that our journal has served as a vehicle for this historic marriage (Figure 3). As one will see from the issue, many of the best and brightest in the field responded eagerly to contribute to a volume honoring Peter. Indeed, while this Special Issue focuses on new findings in dinosaur biology, a recent mammoth, sister Special Issue on crocodiles, "The Age of Crocodilians and Their Kin: Anatomy, Physiology, and Evolution," Guest Edited by Casey Holliday (an academic "grandson" of Peter) of the University of Missouri School of Medicine and Emma R. Schachner (another PhD student of Peter) then of Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center (Holliday & Schachner, 2022; Laitman & Smith, 2022), was also done largely as an homage to Peter. Just the mention of something that will say a "thanks" to Peter has colleagues and former students and grand-students coming out of the rock pile to contribute. Attesting to Peter's broad influence, the contributions do not focus solely upon his own particular interests/scholarship charting the rise and distribution of ceratopsian dinosaurs (he is their undisputed horned king!). Rather, to name just some, they span a glorious gamut: from detailed descriptions of unusual Therapods from New Jersey (really? hadrosaurs, Jimmy Hoffa…who knew Jersey was actually interesting; sorry, JL is a native New Yorker and has little control when commenting on New Jersey; Gallagher, 2023); reports on a new iguanodontian dinosaur from South Africa (Forster et al., 2023); new insights on evolutionary relationships from analyses of the hyolaryngeal apparatus in extant archosaurs (i.e., birds and crocodilians; Yoshida et al., 2023); new reconstructions of the pectoral girdle and forelimb musculature of Megaraptora (Rolando et al., 2023); insights from osteohistology of Dromornis stironi with implications for understanding the histology of Australian mihirung birds (Chinsamy et al., 2023); insightful observations on fracture and disease in a large-bodied ornithomimosaur with insights into identifying unusual endosteal bone in the fossil record (Chinzorig et al., 2023); a comprehensive assessment of the history and future of the study of morphometrics in the study on non-avian dinosaurs (Hedrick, 2023); detailed modeling to assess and predict the abundance of large carnivorous dinosaurs of the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation and the Upper Cretaceous Dinosaur Park formation (by Peter and JL's Yale classmate, the ever-creative James Farlow; JL is still in awe at all the super-bright dino dudes that surrounded him at Yale "back in the day"; Farlow et al., 2023); to a number of papers—naturally—on Peter's great love, the ceratopsians, including those by lead Guest Editor Fiorillo (Fiorillo & Tykoski, 2023) and Peter's successor teaching anatomy at Penn, Ali Nabavizadeh (Nabavizadeh, 2023). Even the cover of this Special Issue has been a creative homage to Peter, lovingly created by Anatomical Record Associate Editor (and artist extraordinaire) Adam Hartstone-Rose (Hartstone-Rose et al., 2023). What an incredible smorgasbord of new ideas from the minds of some of today's best dinosaur workers. "Hurry up, Jeff," Peter exhorts, "our appointment is for 10:00 sharp and the curator is expecting us." Along with JL's accommodating wife Leila (who was pressed into service as our photographer; if it was not for her adoring Peter—who does not?—not a chance she would spend hours taking photos of poor JL!), we bundled into our Uber and headed to the glorious Mütter Museum and Professor Leidy. The first time Peter and JL tried to visit Professor Leidy was back in 2009 when he was then in residence at the Wistar Institute on Penn's campus (they were turned away as they did not have an appropriate appointment and told "the Professor did not receive just anyone"). Since then, Leidy's domicile has changed (fortunately) to the extraordinary Mütter Museum, named after surgeon Thomas Dent Mütter who in 1856 donated his extensive collections of anatomical and pathological specimens to the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, wherein they have both grown and been lovingly cared for (btw, this is a really cool place, and if you had to choose between some cracked Liberty Bell and the Mütter, go Mütter!; see Worden, 2002). For Peter and JL, visiting Professor Leidy was almost a religious experience, as the Professor was their direct ancestor in so many ways: For PD, as Professor of Anatomy at Penn Veterinary School, and the comparative anatomist and vertebrate paleontologist at Penn, the line is direct; for JL, also, as an anatomy professor and fossil aficionado, but also as a past President of the American Association for Anatomy, the society of which Leidy was the first President, the bond is also powerful. Both PD and JL were well aware that they were coming into the presence of both their past and present (Figure 4). Professor Leidy was brought to PD and JL in his permanent home, a thick and heavy glass jar. What remained of the Professor was his brain. While this may seem odd, it was not uncommon in the 19th century to preserve the brains of great people (when JL told his daughter of this custom, Miss Snarky responded "do not worry, dad, you are safe"). The Professor's brain had turned a rather eerie shade of green, probably due to the preservatives used. Green or not, encased or not, this extraordinary anatomical remain was the repository of arguably more scientific knowledge than was held by any other mortal in the latter half of the 19th century. Within lay the secrets of anatomy and the founding of dinosaur paleontology in the United States. Peter and JL were in the presence of greatness, a most special and rare moment. As the group left the Mütter that day—and headed to our next stop, Peter's second home, his beloved Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences—JL could not stop pondering the gravity of the encounter. There were two of the rarest gems in the history of American Paleontology, Professors Joseph Leidy and Peter Dodson, together. As JL's kids would say, "two heavy dudes." As Peter, JL, and JL's wife Leila (our sometimes complaining photographer) came into the main hall of the Academy staring us in the face were exhibit after exhibit that Peter had lovingly created. His name and images were everywhere. One, in particular, caught JL's attention as it so accurately summarized the moment and the person of appreciation: there was a picture of Peter with his reconstruction of Avaceratops with a bold banner that read "A Rare Find" (Figure 5). It clearly identified both the fossil and the scientist. HS and JL are very proud, on behalf of The Anatomical Record, to share both the wonderful science and scientists that have come together to offer new ideas from old bones, and to give a heartfelt thanks to our "Rare Find" of a colleague, Peter Dodson. We hope that you will explore the articles within and enjoy and learn from them as much as we have. And give a smile and thanks when you think of our most dear colleague, Peter Dodson. Jeffrey T. Laitman: Conceptualization; writing – original draft; writing – review and editing; visualization. Heather F. Smith: Conceptualization; writing – original draft; writing – review and editing; visualization.