COELACANTHS & PARASAUROLOPHUS

[darren.naish@port.ac.uk]

Hello everyone. Trying to fight through the backlog, and I see quite 
a few interesting things I mean to comment on. First off, Tom Holtz 
wrote....

>  Monoplachs thus have a 350 million year gap of
>  non-recovery in the fossil record, making coelacanth's 65 million 
>  gap pale in comparison.

Shame Tom, shame! Actinistians are now known from the Palaeocene of 
Denmark (questionably, however) and the Miocene of Israel. The 65 Ma 
coelacanth ghost lineage has closed considerably (note also that 
latest K coelacanths were not known until _Megalocoelacanthus_ was 
described by Schwimmer et al. in 1994).

On to something completely different.. David Norman (1985), in _The 
Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Dinosaurs_, refers to Andrew Milner's 
theory about the function of the lambeosaur crest: viz, it was a 
foliage deflector used a bit like the crest of extant cassowaries. I 
have never seen this theory described in the technical literature, 
and was wondering if anyone could provide a ref. Thanks.

On the same theme, Milner's theory required that a 'notch' in the 
caudal cervicals of _Parasaurolophus_ was not an artefact, but a 
genuine feature present in all individuals. This is evidently 
incorrect, but I am sure I've seen life restorations of 
_Parasaurolophus_ where the 'neck notch' is evident. Sorted through 
loads of dino art over the weekend and couldn't find it.. I thought 
it might have been Jenny Halstead but alas was not. Can anyone cite 
artwork with a  restored _Parasaurolophus_ that has the neck notch?

"Unless we assume scientists to be infallible, the fact that a theory 
has been adopted does not justify that adoption" (Brady 1979 - - 
perhaps he had just met Alan Feduccia?:))

DARREN NAISH
darren.naish@port.ac.uk