Re: earliest herbivore

[Stanley Friesen <sarima@ix.netcom.com>]

At 08:40 AM 9/15/98 -0700, Betty Cunningham wrote:
>checking back into the Peabody collections with more care I come 
>up with:
>(http://www.peabody.yale.edu/collections/vp/Search.html )
>
>Anchisauripus exsertus branfordi Thorpe, 1929. HOLOTYPE
>USA. Connecticut. New Haven Co. Collected: Yale 1928 North 
>Branford Excavation 4/30/1928. Triassic. 
>
>No sign of any dating from 1818 in the Yale collections.  No 
>notes about change of spelling from your version to this 
>version.

That is because _Anchisaurus_ and _Anchisauripus_ are names for two
different things.  The former is the genus name of a prosauropod dinosaur
known from fossil bones.  The latter is an ichnogenus applied to one type
of track found in the Connecticut Valley.  The name is intended to
*suggest* that it *might* be the footprint of _Anchisaurus_.
>
>as an aside to the list: a few items in the Peabody collection 
>are labelled as HOLOTYPE. However a very few are labelled 
>otherwise what is a COTYPE?  what is a SYNTYPE?

I suspect that these two mean the same thing.  Anyhow, a syntype is any
member of the type *series* - that is from the set of specimens used by the
original describer of a new species - in the case that no single holotype
or lectotype has been designated.

When a single type specimen is designated, the rest of the type series
become paratypes.

>  what is a PLESIOTYPE?

Not sure of this one.

>If some pieces in the collection are labelled as MOLD I assume 
>they are a mold of the original.

Probably.  Where these by any chance the types for names ending in
-ichnites, or -ipus or some other form suggesting feet?  If so, I bet they
are molds of prints.

--------------
May the peace of God be with you.         sarima@ix.netcom.com
                                          sfriesen@netlock.com