Tyrant Notes

["DE SOSA" <43mad14@pdq.net>]

Hey everyone!
        I'm not quite 17 yet, but I'm pretty sure that I want to be a 
paleontologist after college (and, during, I guess).  I think this mailing list 
is a great opportunity to have scientific discussions and increase general 
knowledge of dinosaurs.  Mostly I plan on watching and learning from the 
*experts*, but I won't hesitate to ask questions if I have any.  And, oh look 
-- here's one now!
        I've been looking at various cladograms available on the web (Mike 
Keesey's and Stan Friesen's, mostly) and they both seem to say that all Lancian 
tyrannosaurs of North America should be included in Tyrannosaurus.  This 
includes Nanotyrannus lancensis and Dinotyrannus megagracilis.  Also, they say 
Maleevosaurus novojilovi should be in included in T. bataar or T. efremovi 
(what's the diff between these two, anyway?).  I would like to know the popular 
opinion on this theory.  Is this widely accepted, or a  "heresy" (a la Bakker)?
         Are they simply growth stages, or can they be put in subgenuses of 
Tyrannosaurus?  And if the former, I'd like to know where that was published, 
if it has been.  (Sorry, just curious, didn't mean to sound rude.)  I thought I 
read somewheres that the Nanotyrannus skull was from an adult.  Or maybe I just 
like the idea of "pygmy" tyrannosaurs running around.  But that's just a 
fetish...um, never mind.
        I'm probably sounding like an idiot right now, but sorry, I don't have 
access to much more than Science, and I can make a trip to the U of Houston 
library if I need to find Nature, but those other obscure journals are pretty 
tough for a high school junior to get a hold of.  And I probably am making 
gross anatomical errors in my judgement, but I had to teach myself dinosaur 
anatomy using "The Dinosauria", so I may actually be clueless.
        Oh yes, one more thing on the subject of tyrannosaurs.  In Horner's 
"The Complete T. rex", he mentions 4 undescribed species: a "stretch-snouted" 
daspletosaur, a Horseshoe Canyon (?)daspletosaur, a non-Albertosaurus libratus 
, and a Tyrannosaurus/Daspletosaurus intermediate.  Anybody know what's up with 
these guys?  It's been 5 years since the book came out. 

Miguel ("Mike") de Sosa
(dinosaur enthusiast and Carmen Electra worshipper)
Sugar Land, TX
43mad14@pdq.net
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"If there's anything more important than my ego around, I want it caught and 
shot now."
                                                -Zaphod Beeblebrox