The imagery on this page is the basis for a paper entitled Cranial osteology of the theropod dinosaur Incisivosaurus gauthieri (Theropoda: Oviraptorosauria), by A.M. Balanoff, X. Xu, Y. Kobayashi, Y. Matsufune, and M.A. Norell, 2009 (American Museum Novitates 3651:1-35). The abstract is as follows:

       We provide a description of the holotype skull of the unusual oviraptorosaur Incisivosaurus gauthieri.        Previous phylogenetic analyses have placed this taxon firmly within Oviraptorosauria near the base of        the clade; however, until now only a cursory description of this important specimen was available.        The presence of many primitive characteristics (e.g., maxillary and dentary teeth as well as an        extended palate and rostrum) indicates that the observed similarities between avians and derived        oviraptorids are convergences rather than shared derived characters. In addition, we clarify previous        descriptions of several ambiguous anatomical features, most notably of the palate. We also employ a        computed tomographic (CT) analysis, which allows for a more complete description of the braincase        and the reconstruction of an endocranial endocast. CT imagery reveals features that were before        unobtainable, such as the presence of a replacement tooth behind the large rodentiform incisor in        the premaxilla. This arrangement indicates that although the incisiform teeth of I. gauthieri are        morphologically distinct they are replaced in typical archosaurian fashion.

This specimen, the holotype and only known specimen, was discovered in the Early Cretaceous rocks of northeastern China. It was collected from the lower part of the Yixian Formation.

The specimen was scanned at Stony Brook University medical scanning facility. It was scanned along the coronal axis for a total of 404 slices, and each 512X512 pixel slice is 0.310 mm thick.

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