Dimorphism might therefore be expected for some taxa if the herd recognition hypothesis was correct. To conclude, neither the presence of a fairly random pattern of diversification in exaggerated structures, nor the lack of sexual dimorphism, represent clear support MI-503 clinical trial for the species recognition hypothesis over others. Padian & Horner (2011a) argued that the presence of exaggerated structures in sympatric, closely related taxa supports their role in species

recognition. However, it has been noted that ‘mating signals of sympatric species often are more distinct from one another than are other signals produced by the same species’ and, furthermore, that ‘species confined to different regions have no possibility of confusing their signals’ (both quotes by Wells & Henry, 1998). In short, we would expect that if these features

functioned in species recognition, they would be more divergent between sympatric species, and less divergent between allopatric ones. However, this is clearly not true for a number of examples in the dinosaur fossil record. Wuerhosaurus (or Stegosaurus) homheni is the only stegosaur recognized in the Lower Cretaceous Lianmuging Formation of China (Maidment et al., 2008). Given the distinctive bauplan of stegosaurs relative to potential sympatric dinosaurs, it is unlikely that individuals Wnt tumor would struggle selleckchem to identify conspecifics simply because they lacked dorsal plates and tail spikes. This and other examples (e.g. the lone Asian spinosaurine,

Ichthyovenator, Allain et al., 2012) render it difficult to interpret species recognition as a viable primary explanation for the evolution of exaggerated structures among these taxa. Main et al. (2005) noted of stegosaur anatomy that while ‘we have no independent evidence of mate competition, we can use the features of their plates to identify species’. However, this is not always true: disagreement continues over stegosaur taxonomy, with variation in plate and spike form being interpreted as within intraspecific variation by some, but exceeding it by others (Maidment et al., 2008). Similar problems exist for other lineages. An additional argument against the use of exaggerated structures in species recognition is that some structures differ little between sympatric species. The Upper Cretaceous Inner Mongolian locality of Bayan Mandahu, for example, has yielded the apparently contemporaneous neoceratopsians Protoceratops hellenikorhinus, Bagaceratops rozhdestvenskyi and Magnirostris dodsoni (Lambert et al., 2001). If some of these taxa are synonymous, then likely only one species occupied any one locality at any one time, and we return to the paradox of a character for ‘species recognition’ when there is no possibility of confusion.