drinker: Definition and Much More from Answers.com

The term drinker may refer to someone who drinks alcohol. It may describe someone who does so within limits, but typically indicates alcoholism.

Drinker Fossil range: Late Jurassic
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Sauropsida Superorder: Dinosauria Order: Ornithischia Suborder: Cerapoda Infraorder: Ornithopoda Family: Hypsilophodontidae Genus: Drinker
Binomial name
Drinker nisti Bakker et al., 1990

Drinker (for Edward Drinker Cope) was a genus of hypsilophodont dinosaur from the late Jurassic period of North America. Although based on good remains, the lack of post-naming publications, combined with what Robert Bakker (one of its describers) has said and written about it, have led to some mystery surrounding this animal.

Description

A relatively small dinosaur, Drinker was approximately 2 meters (6 feet) long and may have weighed up to 10 kilograms (22 pounds).^[1] It was a biped with short arms, a small head, and strong, long legs.

Classification

Drinker has sometimes been regarded informally as a possible synonym of contemporaneous Othnielia (now Othnielosaurus), but the latest reviews have kept it separate.^[2][3] It has usually been regarded as a "hypsilophodont" of uncertain but basal affinities; Phyllodon from the Late Jurassic of Portugal may have been related.^[4][3]

Discovery and history

In 1990, Bakker, Peter Galton, James Siegwarth, and James Filla described the partial remains of Drinker nisti. The name is somewhat ironic; Drinker, named for renowned palaeontologist Edward Drinker Cope whose infamous "bone wars" with rival Othniel Charles Marsh produced many dinosaur fossils which are world-famous today, was described as a probable close relative of Othnielia, named for Marsh. The species name refers to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).^[5]

Discovered by Siegwarth and Filla in upper Morrison Formation beds at Como Bluff, Wyoming, Drinker was based on a partial subadult skeleton (CPS 106) including partial jaws, vertebrae, and partial limbs. Numerous additional specimens from the age spectrum found in the same area were assigned to it, mostly consisting of vertebral and hindlimb remains, and teeth. The authors considered it to be too archaic to be a true "hypsilophodont", particularly in teeth lacking a strong central vertical ridge, and placed it with Othnielia (=Othnielosaurus) in a separate unnamed group.^[5] Since 1990, little has been published on this genus.

Paleobiology

Bakker (1990) described its environment as swampy (lungfish teeth and marsh vegetation were found in the area), and claimed that its broad feet with spreading toes were well-suited to such an environment, especially compared to the narrow-footed stegosaurs and sauropods found elsewhere in the Morrison.^[6] However, he later claimed, in a 1993 television show [1] and other venues, that the animal had been found in burrows, although the relationship between the burrow location and swampy terrain has not been addressed in print. Considering that crocodilians, turtles, muskrats, and a variety of other swamp-dwelling organisms also construct burrows,^{[citation needed]} this attribute may not be especially unusual. Also, the animal may have died in a swampy environment, but lived elsewhere.

If Drinker was indeed a burrower, it would be among the first known for dinosaurs; the only well-supported published case of a fossorial nonavian dinosaur is the more recently discovered Oryctodromeus. Otherwise, it appears to have been like other basal ornithopods: a small bipedal herbivore. It lived alongside turtles, lungfish, and early mammals (Zofiabaatar, Foxraptor).^[1]

References

External links

• Drinker and burrowing
• Brief capsule description at Thescelosaurus!