MEGABADGERS & SLAVOIA

[<darren.naish@port.ac.uk>]

David Marjanovic wrote...

> - Do 1-m-long badgers exist (apart from extinct *Deinogalerix*)??? :-/

There was of course the elusive Cretaceous taxon _Megabadger_ 
(Wagner 2000), a terrifying predator of Asian hadrosaurs. Regardless, 
_Deinogalerix_ was a hedgehog (Erinaceidae).

Among real badgers, I think a large _Meles meles_ can reach 1 m (as 
usual, I don't have helpful literature with me). I suspect _Taxidea_ can 
get to 80 cm or more, but this isn't a badger s. s. 

On to something else, in the Gobi lizards post I mentioned the 
scincomorph _Slavoia_. Have just seen this...

Kordikova, E. G., Polly, P. D., Alifanov, V. A., Rocek, Z., Gunnell, G. 
F. and Averianov, A. O. 2001. Small vertebrates from the Late 
Cretaceous and early Tertiary of the northeastern Aral Sea region, 
Kazakstan. _Journal of Paleontology_ 75, 390-400.

Besides various sharks, discoglossids and varanoids, this paper 
describes and discusses new _Slavoia_ material (a right dentary). There 
is a long discussion of the controversial affinities of this taxon - the 
authors follow Alifanov 1993 in uniting it with _Eoxanta_ in a 
Slavoiidae.

This is in the same issue as Dave Varricchio's paper about tyrannosaur 
stomach contents.... tyrannosaurs? Wish I had me one of those.

DARREN NAISH 
PALAEOBIOLOGY RESEARCH GROUP
School of Earth & Environmental Sciences
UNIVERSITY OF PORTSMOUTH
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