Re: Maryland Fossils

[Tompaleo@aol.com]

Good old Peter Kranz! My buddy ;-)

For those of you who don't know, these pictures were displayed the Mt. St. 
Mary's College exhibit that I wrote to the list about back in Janvier. Except 
for anything that Tom Holtz has to say about it (and he's right!) you really 
have to take allot of Peter's interpretations with a grain of salt. After 
all, he's erected "Capitalsaurus" and "Magulodon muirkirkensis" both are 
which nomen nuda (and dubia). Don't misunderstand me as I am not putting him 
down, all I am saying is that Peter has a flare for waxing "Bakkerian", 
especially for the local media who eat that s*it up! Come to think of it, he 
looks like Bakker too. ;-)

I'll contact him to try and extract more info about it. 

Currently, the only _published_ paper with evidence suggesting the presence 
of  velociraptorines in Maryland is the paper I wrote back in 1998:

Lipka, T. R., 1998. The affinities of the enigmatic theropods of the Arundel 
Clay facies (Aptian), Potomac Formation, Atlantic Coastal Plain of Maryland.; 
pp. 229-234 _in_ S.G. Lucas, J.I. Kirkland, and J.W. Estep (eds.), Lower and 
Middle Cretaceous Ecosystems. New Mex. Mus. Nat. Hist. and Sci. Bull. 14, 
Albuquerque.

You might be intersted to know that I am currently working on an update to 
that paper which should include some (possible, likely,) skeltal material. 
But that's still a ways off....

BTW, the District sewer project referred to in the caption is regarded in the 
older lietrature as coming from the Arundel Clay. I see no reason to not 
accept that. This makes it contemporaneous  with and literally "up the 
street" from my site.

BTW, nice rendition by Greg Paul!

More Arundel wonders on the way (I hope)!

Tom

Thomas R. Lipka
Paleontological/Geological Studies
Tompaleo@aol.com