Argentine sauropod embryos

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

This just in,

Chiappe, L.M., L. Salgado & R.A. Coria.  2001.  Embryonic skulls of
titanosaur sauropod dinosaurs.  Science 293: 2444-2446.

Examines the nice little skulls of the titanosaur embryos from Auca Mahuevo.
They show the same notch between the maxilla and the jugal & quadratojugal
found in _Rapetosaurus_.  Interestingly the external nares seem to be
anterior to the orbits (weird in a sauropod!), but they suggest that these
might migrate backwards during ontogeny.

The taxon remains unnamed, possibly because there is mention of a nearly
complete skeleton from the same formation waiting to be described (and
perhaps the same species, as it shares some cranial synapomorphies with the
little guys).

                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