Re: Info on Apatosaurus excelsus skull

["Tim Williams" <twilliams_alpha@hotmail.com>]

Alessandro Marisa wrote:

> in 1998 Bakker in a report on Jurassic-Cretaceous transition in Wyoming and 
> Colorado pointed out salient differences between the A. excelsus (TATE 099) 
> skull and the A. louisae (CM 11162) skull.

Bakker (1998) did not described the new skull, nor explicitly state why it 
was referrable to _A. excelsus_ (his _Brontosaurus excelsus_).  In fact, 
Bakker uses the cranial differences you mention to justify generic status 
for _excelsus_: i.e., resurrecting _Brontosaurus_ as a valid genus, separate 
from _Apatosaurus_.  ("If you can't lick 'em. split 'em!")  The paper you 
mention will hopefully address the disposition of TATE 099, but AFAIK it has 
not been published.




Tim

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