RE: Harpymimus

["Thomas R. Holtz, Jr." <tholtz@geol.umd.edu>]

> From: owner-dinosaur@usc.edu [mailto:owner-dinosaur@usc.edu]On Behalf Of
> Timothy Williams
>
> The condition of the metatarsus of _Harpymimus_ is a contentious
> topic which
> has popped up more than once on this list.  Although Barsbold and Perle's
> original description indicate that the foot is NOT
> arctometatarsalian (and
> the illustrations would seem to back this up), according to other sources
> the real fossil material indicates that the foot of _Harpymimus_
> is indeed
> arctometatarsalian.  Have a look at Holtz (1994), J. Vert. Paleont. 14:
> 480-519 (especially pages 494-496).
>
More precisely, I state that the foot of _Harpy._ is difficult to determine
for certain, as it has been subjected to some mediolateral "smearing".  The
foot of _Garudimimus_, though, IS arctometatarsalian, although somewhat more
like _Elimsaurus_ or _Chirostenotes_ than typical ornithomimosaurs, as mts
II and IV just touch on the dorsalmost part of the anterior face.  The
metatarsus of _Garudimimus_ is correctly restored in Currie & Russell's 1988
_Chirostenotes_ paper in Canadian J of Earth Sciences, although called
"_Oviraptor_" in that paper!!

                Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
                Vertebrate Paleontologist
Department of Geology           Director, Earth, Life & Time Program
University of Maryland          College Park Scholars
                College Park, MD  20742
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~tholtz/tholtz.htm
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~jmerck/eltsite
Phone:  301-405-4084    Email:  tholtz@geol.umd.edu
Fax (Geol):  301-314-9661       Fax (CPS-ELT): 301-405-0796