WHAT HAPPENED AT SVPCA

[darren.naish@port.ac.uk]

If our network had been up and running, you all would have received 
this message early in the week, rather than now. Anyway.. let's 
continue as if nothing had happened.

Returned on Saturday from the 47th SVPCA (Symposium on Vertebrate 
Palaeontology and Comparative Anatomy), perhaps the best conference I 
have ever attended thus far, held at the National Museums of 
Scotland, Edinburgh. One of the most picturesque and historically 
aware cities I have ever seen. The museum itself was also stunning 
with truly astrounding dioramas of reconstructed fossil fishes 
and Scottish wildlife as it was prior to the agricultural revolution. 
As I mentioned before, I was looking fwd to meeting a number of 
people who haven't been at SVPCA before. Sadly, Hans Sues couldn't 
make it (leaving Dave Martill to do the _Irritator_ skull talk - see 
below), nor could Tony Thulborn or Steve Salisbury. Paul Davis 
couldn't do his talk on avian endothermy, and S. Hua couldn't make it 
to talk about crocs. Never mind.

As goes the talks, there was so much stuff I will try my very best 
to summarise. Do ask me if I mention something but don't 
follow up on it as much as you might like (I will be at SVP, so grab 
hold of me there if possible). Here we go...

**MARINE REPTILES**

David Brown gave a lively talk about 'Hugh Miller's plesiosaur': a 
new Jurassic taxon that was first discovered in the late century (at 
Eigg, south of Skye). Lots of new material: appears to be an 
elasmosaurid.

Leslie Noe told a tangled tale of synonymy and taxonomic referral 
concerning Kimmeridge Clay pliosaurs. Halstead (mostly writing as 
Tarlo) referred a number of species to genera, yet lacked the 
diagnostic elements needed to support the generic allocations. A 
messy subject that I will not attempt to summarise.

Olivier Rieppel gave a stunning talk on cyamodontoid placodonts. Lots 
of new discoveries, new specimens and new interpretations. 
Placodontoids were found to be paraphyletic and a new skull 
reconstruction of _Paraplacodus_ was shown; new data on _Henodus_ 
shows that it had strange grooves in the jaw bones, perhaps for a 
baleen-like structure! Cyamodontoids have now been found in CHINA and 
Rieppel suggested that placochelyids may have probed soft sediments 
and inhaled water thru nostrils for olfactory clues. The 
cyamodontoid carapace may have meant that they were very tolerant of 
salinity, as are some extant turtles. Loads more stuff besides all 
this - will have to stop there.

**NON-ORNITHODIRAN ARCHOSAUROMORPHS**

Max Langer spoke about heterochrony in rhynchosaurs. Derived 
hyperodapedontines have maxillary tooth rows remininscent of juvenile 
basal rhynchosaurs, and might be 'recapturing' their phylogenetic 
youth, if you like. 

M. Waldman: a new tiny crocodile from the Isle of Skye. Jurassic in 
age, preserved with what might be stomach contents. Could be a 
goniopholidid.

**PTEROSAURS**

David Unwin:  _Quetzelcoatlus_ is no longer the biggest pterosaur!! 
THE SOLANA GIANT (from La Solana, Spain) is a gigantic azhdarchid 
known from a cervical vert three times bigger than that of _Q. n._ 
and a giant 'cricket bat' radius. It is different from both _Q. n._ 
and _Arambourgiania_, and most both like the Spanish azhdarchid just 
described by Buffetaut, and _Azhdarcho_. Solana animal comes out as 
10-30% bigger than _Q. n._: Unwin puts the latter at 10 m, so 
therefore the Solana giant at 11 m+. He suggested that giantism in 
these animal may have been an 'accidental consequence of 
indeterminate growth'.

David Martill and Dino Frey spoke about a new soft tissue Santana 
pterosaur (probably another azhdarchid) that has a complete hind foot 
with tremendously recurved pedal claws and a big scaly sole pad that 
enclosed metatarsal V. Preserved wing membrane reaches the ankles 
and, in the hand, webbing stretches between all the fingers (as 
proposed before in the Riess and Frey wing model). Some pterosaur 
trackways (e.g. Croysac ones) match this animal, others 
(Morrison) don't.

Mark Wilkinson spoke about wing motion possible in giant pterosaurs. 
He couldn't actually get much movement out of any of the joints - 
made it look like pterosaurs couldn't really fold their wings at all. 

**SAURISCHIAN DINOSAURS**

*SAUROPODOMORPHS*

Michael Benton spoke about _Thecodontosaurus_: rumour has always had 
it that nearly all of the Bristol thecodontosaur material was 
destroyed in WWII, but this is not true! The juv. skeleton described 
by Diane Kermack may not even be the same species as the type stuff, 
and lots of the adult (including a braincase, which Cope had 
apparently taken to Yale) is known: very interesting proportions. 
Full description is going into JVP.

Paul Upchurch: prosauropod phylogeny. Prosauropods and sauropods are 
monophyletic sister taxa. _Kotasaurus_ was found to be a basal 
sauropod (more basal than _Vulcanodon_): _Camelotia_ was 
controversial and might be either the most basal sauropod, or a 
melanorosaurid. In the prosauropod tree, _Riojasaurus_ and 
_Melanorosaurus_ were primitive compared to sellosaurs and 
plateosaurs.

Kent Stevens showed, via 3D computer modelling and analysis of 
articulation angles in _Euhelopus_, _Camarasaurus_, _Brachiosaurus_ 
and others, that giraffe-necked sauropods result from a death pose 
and all evidence points to near-horizontal necks in the live animals 
(even in _Brachiosaurus_). 

*THEROPODS*

Angela Milner spoke about the distribution and biogeography of 
spinosaurs. Her main, and most interesting, contention was that 
_Suchomimus_ is a junior synonym of _Baryonyx_. In fact, Dr. Milner 
seems to be saying that _Suchomimus_ is little more than a well 
grown, old mature individual of _B. walkeri_. Incidentally, she also 
reiterated that '_Cristatusaurus_' is simply indistinguishable from 
_Baryonyx_.

Donald Henderson gave a run down of what his phd thesis had shown 
about theropod locomotion. Includes work on mass estimates, centre of 
gravity and lots more. _Tyrannosaurus_ was put at just under 7 tons 
weight and had femora held more subvertical than subhoriztonal AND 
Don couldn't get it to move faster than 17kmph (at breakfast we spoke 
about Per Christiansen's new estimate of 47kmph in _T. rex_ 
[mentioned in Erickson's _Sci. Am._ article]. Don is sceptical).

David Martill talked about _Irritator_ and what the new preparation 
showed. Surprise surprise, _I._ looks almost nothing like previous 
skull illustrations (and reconstructions) now that all the bones have 
been prepped out. The thing is unbelievably narrow, and virtually 
flat on the dorsal surface. The big crest over the frontal area 
proved to be a relocated bit of maxilla. Lots of braincase detail. 
Throw away all of your previous _Irritator_ skull drawings.

Emily Rayfield: finite element analysis of _Allosaurus_. Emily's work 
implied that _Allosaurus_ had a relatively weak bite, perhaps 
corresponding with suggestions that it was more of a slashing 
predator than a biter or crusher. But more work is underway.

Debbie Wharton focused on the bird-theropod.. whoops, theropod-bird 
transition from the POV of brain evolution. There is no marked jump 
in encephalisation or anything else in the earliest birds as compared 
to their non-bird outgroups: instead, brain evolution in the theropod 
tree appears to have been step-wise and gradual.

Darren Naish (me) gave an historical review of arboreality/ 
scansoriality in theropods. Ideas that theropods may have climbed go 
back to 1866, and were mentioned in reviews from the 1930s. 
Predictive models based on morphology and behaviour in extant animals 
suggest that smaller coelurosaurian theropods might have climbed, but 
none were arboreal. Am getting a few papers out of this.

Gareth Dyke: new work on London Clay birds. Dammit couldn't take 
notes as I was recovering from the physiological trauma induced by my 
own talk, but lots of new London Clay coliiform, apodiform and 
coraciiform specimens and cladograms that incorporated the relevant 
taxa. Sandocoleiformes found to be paraphyletic basal coliiforms 
IIRC.

Stig Walsh - Mio-Pliocene bone bed locality in Chile extends the 
range of sulids, pelagornithids and other bird taxa deeper south than 
previous South American records show. Possible new taxon of penguin 
is abundant at the site - might be the same thing as the very 
numerous but underdescribed Pisco Fm. penguin.

Eric Buffetaut: _Gastonis_ and _Diatryma_ are congeneric (meaning 
that the latter must be sunk) and both 'genera' already had 
overlapping stratigraphic and geographical ranges (though 
_Gastornis_ has not been reported from outside of Europe, _Diatryma_ 
has long been regarded as a denizen of Eocene France and Germany). 
Means that _Gastornis_ now extends from the late Palaeocene to the 
late Eocene. _Gargantuavis_ is not the same animal however.

**ORNITHISCHIANS**

Paul Barrett spoke about new dinosaurs from Lower Cretaceous Japan. A 
skull - Japans's most complete dino specimen to date - is very like 
_Hypsilophodon_; there were also velociraptorine and tyrannosaurid 
teeth and a possible oviraptorosaurian ungual. 

There were also talks and posters on many synapsids, including 
desmostylians, odontocete cetaceans, dicynodonts, basal carnivorans 
and assorted ungulates. Loads on fishes and a fair bit on basal 
tetrapods. Thanks to a talk about new Aussie Palaeozoic tetrapods 
given by Susan Turner, we learnt that Adam Yates really can draw! Her 
talk figured Adam's reconstruction of a colosteid and a bunch of 
fishes. Congratulations on your new position in the UK Adam.. looking 
fwd to meeting you.

DARREN NAISH 
PALAEOBIOLOGY RESEARCH GROUP
School of Earth, Environmental & Physical Sciences
UNIVERSITY OF PORTSMOUTH
Burnaby Building
Burnaby Road                           email: darren.naish@port.ac.uk
Portsmouth UK                          tel: 01703 446718
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http://www.naish-zoology.com]