Re: Titanosaurus head & neck discovered in Chubut, Argentina

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

>reposted from Sci.Bio.paleontology-FYI
>Subject:             Titanosaurus head & neck discovered in Chubut,
>Argentina
>       Date:             Sat, 12 Apr 1997 15:35:17 GMT
>       From:             fliguer@century.com.ar (Miguel Fliguer)
>   Reply-To:             *******fliguer@century.com.ar*******
>Organization:             All USENET -- http://www.Supernews.com
> Newsgroups:             sci.bio.paleontology
>Extracted from "Pagina/12" (Argentina) :
>
>A team from the Paleontology department of the Universidad de la
>Patagonia announced last week the discovery of a skull (complete
>with 3.5 meters of neck) of a Titanosaurus. It was found at Laguna
>Palacios, 250 Km northwest of Comodoro Rivadavia, Chubut, Argentina.
>This is an Upper Cretaceous area (90 million years), with a landscape
>similar to the well known Valle de la Luna. 

I'm presuming what they actually mean is "titanosaurid", not "Titanosaurus"
(a much younger dino).

>
>This is the fourth Titanosaurus skull discovered in the world, but
>this apparently belongs to a new species.The neck features a
>previously unseen system of bony sinews,

"ossified tendons", perhaps?

>perhaps from evolutive 
>origin, useful to prevent excessive flexion that could  damage
>the spinal cord.
>
>The seven people team was directed by Ruben Martinez, and they're
>working on fossils since 1983. Previously they have found many 
>important discoveries on the Patagonia ( Xenotarsosaurus in 1985,
>Espachtosaurus in 1986, Notohypsilophodon in 1990, and
>Aniksosaurus in 1995)

Notohypsilophodon?  Aniksosaurus?  Anyone (George?  Tracy?  Anyone?) got a
reference for these puppies?

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