Re: pterosauria, mammoths

["Thomas R. Holtz, Jr." <th81@umail.umd.edu>]

At 02:54 AM 11/22/96 -0500, Nick Longrich wrote:

>        I recall someone mentioning a while back that some fragmentary
>pterosaur was actually a troodont. Anybody recall?

The Wealden Group form _Ornithodesmus_, for which the type specimen (a
sacrum) turned out to be from a theropod.  I do not know if the pterosaurian
part of the hypodigm has been reassigned yet.  However, I'd like to point
out that some of the features used to interpret _Orithodesmus_ as troodontid
(more than five sacrals, fused arched sacrum, etc.) also show up in
Neoceratosauria, so I do not think that this specimen is unquestionably a
troodontid.

Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
Vertebrate Paleontologist     Webpage: http://www.geol.umd.edu
Dept. of Geology              Email:th81@umail.umd.edu
University of Maryland        Phone:301-405-4084
College Park, MD  20742       Fax:  301-314-9661

"To trace that life in its manifold changes through past ages to the present
is a ... difficult task, but one from which modern science does not shrink.
In this wide field, every earnest effort will meet with some degree of
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will bring to light some law, in accordance with which ancient life has been
changed into life as we see it around us to-day."
        --O.C. Marsh, Vice Presidential Address, AAAS, August 30, 1877