Re: Baja fossils?

["Steve Brusatte" <dinoland@lycos.com>]

On Sat, 20 Apr 2002 13:13:11  
 Afmayor wrote:
>Can anyone help figure out what kind of large vertebrate fossils were 
>observed by early Spanish missionaries in Baja? Dinosaur fossils occur in the 
>El Gallo Formation on the north Pacific coast, but I have not been able to 
>locate the " the oasis called Kadakaamang." At the oasis, the missionaries 
>dug up giant skeleton after some bones were revealed by a flood. The entire 
>vertebra was found, a long arm bone (broken) , a partial thigh bone, several 
>teeth, and a large fragment of the cranium. The femur fragment  was about 2 
>feet long. The size of the bones led the finders to guess the creature 
>extended about 11 feet.
>
>Any knowledge of this oasis or ideas about the probable identity of the 
>skeleton will be much appreciated!   

Well, my only knowledge of the Baja fossils comes from Michael Novacek's recent 
book _Time Traveler_.  Early in his career he took a few expeditions to Baja, 
where he reports finding (or studying) many dinosaur fossils, including those 
of tyrannosaurids, ornithopods, and ankylosaurids.  He writes that near the 
Pacific Coast, about 225 miles from the border, is a site near El Rosario where 
impressive bones of _Hypacrosaurus_ were found.  One of these bones, an 
ischium, was four feet long, and a neural spine was some two feet long.  Ralph 
Molnar has also done some work in Baja, where he found a fragmentary skull, 
pelvis, and pes from a theropod which he called _Labocania_.  This theropod was 
found just below the El Gallo Formation.

In a 1967 paper published in _Science_, Bill Morris reconstructed the El Gallo 
fauna as comparing favorably with the fauna of the Upper Edmonton Formation of 
Alberta, meaning that many of the taxa found in the Upper Edmonton MIGHT also 
be expected to be found in Baja.

I recommend checking out Novacek's book for more information on this subject.

Steve 

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