Re: SUCHOMIMUS STUFF

[Danvarner@aol.com]

In a message dated 98-11-16 14:54:10 EST, you write:

<< 
 Baryonx was associated with Lepidotes (a big fish) scales. My research
 on the freshwater fish in the Cretaceous of western North America
 incates that Lepidotes was very common in Cenomanian river systems well
 inland. The response I got was that Lepidotes was known from marine
 rocks so it is a marine fish. My data suggests that perhaps some large
 species were like Salmon and went up rivers to reproduce. THUS,
 seasonally perhaps Lepidotes was present in very large numbers and was
 thus a food resource not to be ignored.
        Also of interest is that this group goes extinct at the end of the
 Cenomanian, when Spinosaurids disappear. Even in the Late Cenomanian
 these fish are very abundant, but there is not a sign in the Turonian.
 This is a big extinction level for fresh water fish in North America
 (see Eaton et al. GSA Bull. 109(5):560-567, 1997).
  >>

  I think you are on to something here, Jim. The first mosasaurs appear in the
Turonian-in near-shore environments. 
  I must confess to an image of an opportunistic, delta-dwelling Suchomimi
hammering spawning fish one month then visiting the local nesting birds the
next. God knows what the pterosaurs were up to-or when they nested. What a
world! Don't you just love it? Dan Varner.