Re: RAJASAURUS

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

Mickey Mortimer (Mickey_Mortimer111@msn.com) wrote:

<There are some VERY robust limb bones from the Lameta Formation described
by Huene and Matley, and more recently illustrated in Chure's thesis. 
They may belong to Rajasaurus. I wonder if some of the Majungatholus-like
snout elements described as Indosuchus (Chatterjee, 1978; Sampson et al.,
1996) are really Rajasaurus. This is also interesting because Caranno et
al. (2002) (tentatively) synonymized Lametasaurus, Indosaurus and
Indosuchus.  Would be interesting to know just how many Lameta
abelisaurids there were.>

  There are extensive postcranial and cranial remains from Jubulpur in
Madhya Pradesh. This includes the cited material from Chatterjee, von
Huene, von Huene & Matley, etc. What makes me worry is wether the
diagnostic braincase of *Indosaurus*, which resembles what I've seen so
far of this new skull featured on various websites (the name of which is
unpublished as yet, btw); so perhaps in the paper the authors will find a
way to discount these taxa as nomina dubia, as they have for other taxa
published in the last decade they have described, to substantiate their
finds as [acknowledgedly] more diagnostic possible synonyms.

  However, the cranial remains of previously referred *Indosuchus*
material (questionably associated with that taxon by Chatterjee) belong to
this form and appear to form the basis of the skull, rather than a
distinct, new, complete skull. Maxilla, lachrymal, premaxilla, etc.

  As the joy of redescribing such old, disarticulated remains as new taxa.

  Cheers,

=====
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.

"Innocent, unbiased observation is a myth." --- P.B. Medawar (1969)

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