RE: "Feathered" Psittacosaurus makes it to a museum

[GUNTER.VANACKER@ELECTRABEL.COM]

I'm glad the specimen is now in good hands at the renowned Senckenberg
museum, this will allow complete study, and reliable interpretation of the
unusual structures on the tail, that will surely have important
repercussions for dinosaur phylogeny.
This is exactly why I started the whole controversy during August 2001; I
was aware that it did represent a valuable specimen, and had genuine fears
that it would end up in a private collection. Although my comments were
mostly speculations, I was confident that a public announcement could
contribute to a settlement where the scientific community would be the real
winner.
(I admit that the price of US$ 200,000 is quite alarming)

I would also like to use this opportunity, to ask everyone to stop
discussing the specimen on a public mailing list and ... wait for the paper.

I'm sure that a team of experienced paleontologists are studying the
specimen and that they will surprise us with their conclusions in the
(hopefully not too distant) future.



regards,

Gunter Van Acker



-----Oorspronkelijk bericht-----
Van: Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. [mailto:tholtz@geol.umd.edu]
Verzonden: woensdag 5 december 2001 22:56
Aan: dinosaur
Onderwerp: "Feathered" Psittacosaurus makes it to a museum


This just in:

Dalton, R. 2001. Wandering Chinese fossil turns up at museum. Nature 414:
571.

News item stating that the infamous Psittacosaurus with the quilled tail has
wound up at the Naturmuseum Senckenberg in Frankfurt, purchased for
~US$200,000 this past summer.

                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