New research disproves common assumption on cranial joints of alligators, birds, dinosaurs

Paleontologists have long assumed that the shape of joints in the skulls of dinosaurs, and their closest modern relatives alligators and birds, reveals how much movement are allowed in their skulls. Researchers from the University of Missouri School Of Medicine recently discovered that although alligators, birds and dinosaurs have a similar skull-joint shape, it no longer can be assumed that this lone fact can determine movement.