Re: Ichabod Crane (a few related questions)

["SCHMIDT" <ashmidt@flash.net>]

I know we should be patient but I've been hearing about all these unnamed
dromeaosaurs for so long and it seems like they'll never be named...

It may not be the most authoritive work but "Raptor's the Nastiest
Dinosaurs" (why oh why weren't they restored with feathers?) makes reference
to a skeleton from Mongolia that was dug up before 1989.  Suposedly this
skeleton is nearly complete and twenty feet long.  Why would such an
incredible find not be top priority for scientists?  Its been six years
since I read this book and I still don't know what has become of this
creature, none of the described forms seem to match it.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jaime A. Headden" <qilongia@yahoo.com>
To: <dinosaur@usc.edu>
Sent: Thursday, January 17, 2002 8:54 AM
Subject: RE: Ichabod Crane


> Okie, proper story...
>
>   Ichabod Crane was the _schoolteacher_ who was sent to train the young
> boys and girlies in the ways of 18th century New England. The horseman was
> simply known as the horseman. Other legends of the time point to a
> fearsome warrior known as the Hessian who lost his head and sought
> vengeance thereafter. I beleive Irving picked up on this. Burton's story
> made is more plausible a mystery than Irving's original story was set to.
> Braham Bones was a hooligan in Burton's tale, but nothing more. In
> Irving's, he was the protagonist. The horseman was only a plot line.
>
>   Oddly enough, the skull labelled "Ichabodcraniosaurus" (which will never
> receive formal designation, I'm sure) was designated from a skeleton
> without a head, as in Novacek's book. However, I believe that later, a
> skull was found, and the name stuck. I could be wrong. However, Norell
> believes this to be a new taxon as of a year and a half ago, I do not know
> this is the case now. The skull differs by more than a single lack of a
> twist in the paroccipital processes of the squamosals, including the deep
> caudal recesses of the supraoccipital. Other features may be ontogenetic,
> but the skull also shares a peculiar jugal and maxilla with
> *Dromaeosaurus* in some respects.
>
>   While chanting the Holtz mantra, remember that patience is a virtue;
> it's the need to rapidly publish ideas without double-checking them or
> maybe getting little blurbs out and having to correct them latter because
> you want it out there as fast as possible leads to problems often lamented
> on the list about bad papers in _Science_ or _Nature_ that don't really
> say anything. If we wait, then we'll get better results than if we want it
> now *now* NOW.
>
>   Like I say in my tagline, "small steps."
>
> =====
> 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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