Re: 2 become 1?

["Jaime A. Headden" <qilongia@yahoo.com>]

Claudio Angelo (cmonteiro@folhasp.com.br) wrote:
 
<I've been looking at the original Angaturama and Irritator papers, plus a note 
in Science (1998)
in which Paul Sereno suggests that both may be "the same taxon, or even the 
same specimen". Is
there a consensus among paleontologists that Angaturama is a synomymy case? 
I've read somewhere in
the list that I. challengeri's skull is being rewroked. By who? Could any of 
you provide any
contact info for the authors?>

  Primarily, The snout was provided as belonging to *Irritator,* described 
earlier by only a few
months before *Angaturama.* Sereno et al. suggested they were synonymous, and 
provided that
*Irritator* was the senior taxon. Preparation and comparison has shown that the 
cross-section of
the snout and depth of the dental roots clearly show the two portions were from 
the same _type_ of
animal. However, they cannot be fitted together. It is reasonable to assume 
they are from the same
specimen, however, no locality data is known for each as to placement in the 
ground. They were
acquired at different times, and as such cannot be definitively indicated as 
the same specimen. In
this case, they should be kept as distinct specimens which are from the same 
taxon. Perhaps the
better name considering etymology and spirit (no pun intended) is sunk into 
another to indicate
the -- perhaps jaundiced -- humor of it's discovery as a theropod, and not a 
pterosaur.

=====
Jaime A. Headden

  Little steps are often the hardest to take.  We are too used to making leaps 
in the face of adversity, that a simple skip is so hard to do.  We should all 
learn to walk soft, walk small, see the world around us rather than zoom by it.

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