Re: jp: Velociraptor in Montana

["Andy Farke" <andyfarke@hotmail.com>]

I talked to Dr. Kraig Derstler a couple weeks ago about the mentioned 
"Velociraptor" specimen (called Bambi). Dave Burnham is the person doing 
most of the prep work on this, with Dr. Kraig consulting on it. Most of 
the bones are prepped if I remember right, and ready for casting, etc. 
It turns out that a good deal of the skull IS there, contra the paper. A 
dinosaur to dream of! Unfortunately, I personally think it will be a 
difficult matter to assign it to a genus or species (and a matter of 
great controversy) because:

A) It is a juvenile, and little if anything is known on theropod growth 
stages.

B) Good North American dromaeosaur material is hard to come by, so there 
is very little to compare it with.

C) "Velociraptor" has been used a "dust bin" name for dromaeosaur 
material, making it difficult to figure out what is what (and I'm not 
implying that Burnham et al. were wrong in their assignment. A new 
species for the little guy isn't an answer, either).

>Burnham,D.A.,Derstler, K.L., and Linster, C.J. 1997.  A new specimen of 
Velociraptor (Dinosauria:Theropoda) from the Two Medicine Formation of 
Montana. Dinofest International Proceedings 1997. pp. 73-75

>Gorgeous little skeleton, though after reading this (admittedly
preliminary) report I felt a bit confused. The authors state that the
skeleton is similar to Velociraptor mongoliensis and declare that
Saurornitholestes langstoni is too poorly known for useful comparison.
However, they refer to the skeleton as Velociraptor cf. langstoni. Has 
any more work been done on this specimen?

Hope that helps,
Andy Farke

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