Abstract
Skull of derived ornithopod dinosaurs had kinematical transverse grinding system called “pleurokinesis”. Pleurokinesis has been suggested from the morphological features of the skull, however pleurokinesis has not been analyzed from mechanical standpoint. Therefore we analyzed an ornithopod skull using finite element analysis to demonstrate the mechanical function of the pleurokinesis. The result showed that the flexibility of the suture releases the stress concentration, and indicates that the pleurokinesis disperse the stress in wider area of the skull. Morphological changes are caused not only by the physical constraint, but also by environments and evolutionary constraints. However the design optimization against the load shows new aspect in the evolutionary morphological changes. [This abstract is not included in the PDF]
