SHUVOSAURUS THE THEROPOD

[darren.naish@port.ac.uk]

Stan asked about current ideas on _Shuvosaurus_, Chatterjee's 
supposed ornithomimid from the Dockum Fm, and George wrote..

> Perhaps a thecodontian related to the toothless rauisuchian 
> _Lotosaurus_. Likely conspecific with _Chatterjeea elegans_ 
> (postcranial material only) from the same quarry(!).

Perhaps, but I cannot help thinking this idea is based on inference 
and superficial similarity, not on any good shared characters. I 
personally have no take on the _Shuvosaurus_ material: I am just 
plain confused, but from what I have heard of it from Oliver Rauhut 
(who actually examined the specimens at Lubbock), it is uncannily 
theropodan. Oliver actually published a short paper - entitled 
something like '_Shuvosaurus_, a juvenile theropod skull from the 
Dockum Fm'  - in a recent Herpetology Conference volume. I've seen 
this paper, but do not have a copy (hmm, I'll get one when I visit 
Bristol Uni this Thursday). 

Not only does _Shuvosaurus_ exhibit several theropod synapomorphies 
(sorry, I don't know which ones off the top of my head), it is 
characterised by some bizarre autapomorphies. For example, its jugal 
contines rostrally beneath the ant. fenestra as a long prong. It's 
one weird critter.

Something else about _Shuvosaurus_... I only got a copy of the 
original paper myself the other day (sent from Ben Roesch, 
together with the newest ish of _The Cryptozoology Review_), and I 
note that Chatterjee _does_ use the term DUROPHAGOUS (as Ben did in 
his _Dinosaur Discoveries_ article on _Shuvosaurus_) when discussing 
_Shuvosaurus_' possible feeding habits. 

It's my understanding that durophagous means 'mollusc eating' - thus 
it is applied to walruses, placodonts, globidensines etc etc - but 
Chatterjee clearly used it to mean 'shell eating', because he 
envisioned it as a Triassic 'nutcracker'. As was discussed on this 
list way, way back by Jerry Harris and others, 'nut' bearing plants 
were not around in the Triassic. But it was then suggested that cycad 
fruits and things like that would have been avialable. 
Palaeobotanists - what's the story here?

"Alan, this species of veriforman has been extinct since the 
Cretaceous"

Now, did that look like a veriforman to you?

DARREN NAISH
darren.naish@port.ac.uk