paleonet Dinosaur Genera List corrections

[Dinogeorge@xxxxxxx]

Here are the last few DGL corrections. I had an old paleonet address in my 
address book and they apparently went nowhere. Let me know if any earlier 
ones are needed:

Subj:   Dinosaur Genera List corrections #167
Date:   7/12/01 1:03:29 PM EST
From:   Dinogeorge

The Dinosaur Deluge of 2001 continues unabated!

Thanks to Ben Creisler and Tim Williams for information about articles in the
latest issue of the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, volume 21 number 2,
my copy of which has not yet arrived but is expected sometime this week. In
particular, two new dinosaur genera are created in the article

Clark, James M., Norell, Mark A. & Barsbold, Rinchen, 2001. "Two new
oviraptorids (Theropoda: Oviraptorosauria), Upper Cretaceous Djadokhta
Formation, Ukhaa Tolgod, Mongolia," Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 21(2):
209–213.

As Tim Wiliams writes (slightly edited):

The two new oviraptorids are Citipati osmolskae and Khaan mckennai.  The
generic names are derived from local languages and traditions: "Citipati"
means "lord of the funeral pyre" in Tantric Buddhist tradition, and "Khaan"
is Mongolian for "lord." Khaan is on par with Minmi as the shortest non-avian
dinosaur genus name.  The derivations of the trivial names: Dr. Halszka
Osmolska and Dr. Malcolm McKenna.

Each is known from a wonderful skeleton, near-complete (IGM 100/978) and
complete (IGM 100/1127), respectively, and referred specimens.  The skulls
will simply make your jaws drop.

The two new species brings the tally of oviraptorid species to six. Oviraptor
mongoliensis is retained in the genus Oviraptor.  The Khaan material was
hitherto referred to Ingenia, from which it differs in the structure of the
manus.

Clark et al. (2001) do not seem to favor uniting therizinosauroids and
oviraptoroids as Oviraptorosauria.  This will be explored in the
soon-to-be-released (hopefully) YPM volume honoring Prof. John Ostrom.

----------------------------------------------------

Thus we add genera #915 and #916 to the Dinosaur Genera List:

Citipati Clark, Norell & Barsbold, 2001

Khaan Clark, Norell & Barsbold, 2001

and add these two species to the table of Asiatic dinosaurs in the
forthcoming Mesozoic Meanderings #3 second printing:

Citipati Clark, Norell & Barsbold, 2001
    C. osmolskae Clark, Norell & Barsbold, 2001†

Khaan Clark, Norell & Barsbold, 2001
    K. mckennai Clark, Norell & Barsbold, 2001†

On July 10 I became my own website's 30,000th visitor when I checked to see
whether that day's updates had been successfully transferred. My website is
at URL

http://members.aol.com/Dinogeorge/index.html

The Dinosaur Genera List is linked there, and is also independently
accessible at

http://members.aol.com/Dinogeorge/dinolist.html

Subj:  Dinosaur Genera List corrections #168
Date:   7/26/01 4:54:22 PM EST
From:   Dinogeorge

There has been some discussion recently on the Dinosaur Mailing List about
the classification of the Late Triassic Shuvosaurus inexpectatus, described
by Sankar Chatterjee in 1993. Recall that he claimed it was a very early
member of the group Ornithomimosauria, based on the striking similarities of
the holotype skull to those of ornithomimosaurs. Subsequently, Murry & Long
(1995) argued that Shuvosaurus was not dinosaurian but another kind of
archosaur, and suggested that the skull represented cranial material of a
taxon they named Chatterjeea elegans, based only on postcranial material.
This seemed reasonable at the time, so I asterisked the genus Shuvosaurus in
the Dinosaur Genera List as a non-dinosaurian archosaur.

Now it appears, from studies by Oliver Rauhut for his doctoral dissertation,
that Shuvosaurus is a theropod after all. An email from Mickey Mortimer
explained (edited a bit): "The only reason Shuvosaurus was removed from the
Theropoda in the first place was because Long and Murry (1995) thought
Chatterjee didn't prove it was a theropod.  They figured since no toothless
Triassic theropods were known, it was more likely to be the head of the
non-dinosaurian archosaur Chatterjeea, because like the non-dinosaurian
archosaur Lotosaurus from China, Shuvosaurus lacked teeth. But Rauhut has
proved Shuvosaurus is a theropod: `Shuvosaurus differs from rauisuchians and
other basal crurotarsans in the following characters: loss of the
postfrontal, paroccipital process directed ventro-laterally, lacrimal
dorso-ventrally elongated, inverted L-shaped and exposed on the skull roof,
presence of a deep basisphenoid recess, and ectopterygoid with expanded
medial part and deep ventral fossa. All of these characters are found in
theropods, and the latter three probably represent synapomorphies for this
group (Gauthier 1986); therefore, Shuvosaurus can be referred to the
Theropoda.' So get it back on that list. :-)"

This does it for me. I've removed the asterisk and notation and reinstated
Shuvosaurus to dinosaurian status; always happy to have a prodigal dinosaur
return. As to what kind of theropod it is, I have rather little idea, since
we really need some postcranial material to help classify it. Perhaps
Chatterjee's family Shuvosauridae really does belong in the Ornithomimosauria
after all. If not, would that then make Shuvosaurus an ornithomimimimic?

(Actually, since Shuvosaurus is earliest, the ornithomimids were actually
shuvosaurimimics, and extant ratites are the ornithomimimimics!)

Genera count remains stable at 916.

The well-organized Dinosaur Mailing List archive can now be visited directly
from the Dinosaur Genera List. The link is in a short introductory paragraph
I recently added about the history of the DGL.

Subj:  Dinosaur Genera List corrections #169
Date:   7/30/01 10:37:17 PM EST
From:   Dinogeorge

It seems the case for including Shuvosaurus within Theropoda is not quite 
closed yet(!). Andy Heckert replied to DGL corrections #168 with the 
following (slightly edited):

"Hunt et al., 1998, Late Triassic Dinosaurs from the Western United States:
Geobios 31(4): 511-531, briefly discuss Shuvosaurus, noting that, at the time
of writing, there was no evidence that Shuvosaurus was a dinosaur, let alone
an ornithomimosaur. Please note what we said on p. 520:

"‘Supposed ornithomimosaurian characters are unconvincing due to poor 
preservation of the holotype skull. The edentulous nature of the jaws is 
[would be] surprising [if it really is an ornithomimosaur], because the most 
plesiomorphic ornithomimosaur (Pelecanimimus), which is 100 million years 
younger than Shuvosaurus, retains small teeth (Perez-Moreno et al., 1994; 
Barsbold & Osmoska, 1990).'

"Furthermore, Hunt (2001, in New Mexico Geological Society Guidebook, due out
in latest September), comments on "Shuvosaurus"/"Chatterjeea" material from
the Bull Canyon Formation in eastern New Mexico and the nomenclatural
problems that have arisen.

"All in all, I remain unconvinced that Shuvosaurus is a dinosaur, and 
absolutely unconvinced that it is an ornithomimosaur."

So I have added a notation to the Shuvosaurus listing to the effect that the
dinosaurian status of the genus is still being debated.

Next, Ben Creisler writes (slightly edited):

"Here's the abstract of a new paper about the first nodosaur from China from
the July issue of Naturwissenschaften. Can't recall seeing this posted in the
Mailing List.

"Die Naturwissenshaften: Volume 88 Issue 7 (2001) pp 297-300 short 
communication: A juvenile ankylosaur from China
Xing Xu, Xiao-Lin Wang, Hai-Lu You
Received: 10 February 2001 / Accepted in revised form: 21 
April 2001 / Published online: 23 June 2001
Abstract. Juvenile ankylosaur specimens are very rare. A new ankylosaur, 
Liaoningosaurus paradoxus gen. et sp. nov., is described based on a 
beautifully preserved juvenile ankylosaur specimen from the famous Yixian 
Formation of Liaoning, China. Liaoningosaurus has a large bony plate 
(somewhat shell-like) shielding the abdomen. This discovery represents the 
first record of such a structure among dinosaurs. Although it has a number of 
distinct features seen in the family Ankylosauridae, a cladistic analysis 
placed Liaoningosaurus in the sister-family Nodosauridae. The ‘intermediate' 
status of this taxon between the two ankylosaur families further supports the 
monophyly of Ankylosauria. This finding also documents the smallest known 
ankylosaur specimen and first complete nodosaurid specimen from Asia."

So we add as genus #917:

Liaoningosaurus Xu, Wang & You, 2001

and to the Asiatic dinosaur list in the forthcoming Mesozoic Meanderings #3
second printing

Liaoningosaurus Xu, Wang & You, 2001
    L. paradoxus Xu, Wang & You, 2001†

As usual, the Dinosaur Genera List is at

http://members.aol.com/Dinogeorge/dinolist.html

I enjoyed the plug the Genera List received in the dinosaur article in the
July 18, 2001 issue of USAToday. Traffic at my home page more than doubled on
that date and is still running at about double the pre-plug rate.

Subj:  Dinosaur Genera List corrections #170
Date:   8/1/01 12:13:50 PM EST
From:   Dinogeorge

The following appeared in today's New York Times, part of an article on the
Madagascar dinosaur expeditions: 

"Dr. Krause and his team also did some digging. They found new skull material
from meat- and plant-eating dinosaurs and an ‘exquisitely preserved skull' of
a large ancient crocodile.

"The results of some previous expeditions will be disclosed this week in the
journal Nature, due out tomorrow. Dr. Krause will announce the discovery of a
fossil tooth from a marsupial mammal that he believes is the earliest found
in the Southern Hemisphere. Until now, the earliest known remains of a
marsupial in the hemisphere dated back to the Paleocene Epoch, 55 million to
65 million years ago; this find suggests that marsupials were in the Southern
Hemisphere during the late Cretaceous period, 65 million to 100 million years
ago. This fossil is approximately 70 million years old, he said.

"In the same issue, Kristina Curry Rogers, a Stony Brook graduate 
student, and Catherine Forster, another Stony Brook paleontology 
professor, announce the discovery of a nearly complete fossil of a new genus
and species of sauropod dinosaur, which they named for Dr. Krause: the
Rapetosaurus krausei."

Accordingly, we add genus #918 to the Dinosaur Genera List:

Rapetosaurus Rogers & Forster, 2001

(If the Nature article has more or different authors than this quote
suggests, I'll change their names accordingly.)

Subj:  Dinosaur Genera List corrections #171
Date:   8/2/01 0:36:58 AM EST
From:   Dinogeorge

This just in from Masahiro Tanimoto in Japan:

"At last I obtained the guidebook ‘Dinosaur Fossils from Chongqing Natural
History Museum.' According to it, the name of the Early Jurassic sauropod is
Yibinosaurus zhoui and its study is being prepared by Ouyang Hui."

OK, this means we add genus #919 to the Dinosaur Genera List:

Yibinosaurus Ouyang vide [Anonymous: Chongqing Natural History Museum
guidebook] 2001 [nomen nudum]

Note that the dinosaur's description is forthcoming, so it is a nomen nudum.