ON THE SCALOPOSAURID SKULL OF OLIVIERIA PARRINGTONI, BRINK WITH A NOTE ON THE ORIGIN OF HAIR
Date
1968
Authors
Findlay, G. H.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
BERNARD PRICE INSTITUTE FOR PALAEONTOLOGICAL RESEARCH
Abstract
The writer undertook an examination of the type specimen of Olivieria
because it seemed well suited to a study of the sensory nerve supply of the
muzzle. Ever since Watson (1931) suggested that one might gauge the sensitivity,
suppleness and therefore the possible hairiness of the muzzle by studying the size,
numbers and position of the sensory nerve foramina in the fossil skull, it has
seemed likely to point, albeit indirectly, to the origin of hair in the pre-mammalian
stem. Such an abundance of nerves supplying the muzzle in scaloposaurid and
bauriamorph reptiles would hardly be needed for scaly and inelastic cheeks.
More probably, as Brink (1956) has emphasized, a mammalian type of tactile hair
with soft cheeks had already come into being in these animals.