RE: Majungatholus and kin

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

> From: owner-dinosaur@usc.edu [mailto:owner-dinosaur@usc.edu]On Behalf Of
> Jordan Mallon
> Sent: Friday, April 06, 2001 10:52 PM
> To: omtvedt@mail.com; dinosaur@usc.edu
> Subject: Re: Majungatholus and kin
>
>
> >From: Erik  Omtvedt <omtvedt@mail.com>
>
> >Which theropods is the Madagascar hunter Majungatholus more closely
> > >related to?
>
> Although it's from a completely different time and place, my best guess
> would be _Carnotaurus sastrei_.  But I'm just as curious as you are...
>
Actually it isn't a completely different time and place: recent work suggest
that _Carnotaurus_ is actually much younger than previously thought
(Campano-Maastrichtian rather than Aptian-Albian, due to new work on the
statigraphy and correlation of that part of Argentina).  Also, some recent
paleogeographic work suggests a land connection well into the Late
Cretaceous between South America, Antarctica, and Indomadagascar.

Phylogenetic work by Sereno (and unpublished work by others) supports the
idea that _Carnotaurus_ and _Majungatholus_ are closer to each other than
either are to _Abelisaurus_.  Chiappe et al.'s new abelisaurid (seen at last
SVP) and perhaps one of the Indian abelisaurs are also part of this clade.

                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