Re: Spinosaurus questions and the presence of air=.

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

Dinogeorge@aol.com wrote:

> That's Becklespinax. Altispinax is based on a single tooth,

According to Rauhut (2000), Huene explicitly attached the name _Altispinax _ 
to the vertebrae.  Thus, the valid name of this tall-spined theropod is 
_Altispinax altispinax_.

"However, Huene (1926a: pp. 482-483) stated: "There is another specimen from 
the Wealden of Battle...consisting of three articulated middle dorsal 
vertebrae, with extremely high neural spines. ...if it were certain that 
such dorsal vertebrae belong to _Megalosaurus dunkeri_, it would be 
necessary to put it into a distinct genus, for which the name _Altispinax_, 
gen. nov., might be reserved.", and in 1932 (p. 235): "Three articulated 
dorsal vertebrae with very elongated neural spines, figured by Owen (202, 
Pl. 19), also seem to belong here; ...In 1926 ..., I based the genus 
_Altispinax_ on these specimens." (my translation). From this it is clear 
firstly that the generic name _Altispinax_ was proposed for the three 
vertebrae, and secondly does not refer to the nomen dubium _Megalosaurus 
dunkeri_.  Since Huene (1926) did not propose a new specific name, the first 
available species name given exclusively to the vertebrae is Paul's (1988a) 
_Acrocanthosaurus altispinax_, the species thus becomes _Altispinax 
altispinax_ (Paul, 1988a).  _Becklespinax_ Olshevsky, 1991, is thus an 
objective junior synonym of _Altispinax_ Huene, 1923."


> and it's not even a spinosaurid tooth.

Well, the dorsal vertebrae of _Altispinax_/_Becklespinax_ are probably not 
spinosaurid either, so this doesn't impact on the nomenclatural issue either 
way.  It's been a long time since _Altispinax_, _Acrocathosaurus_, and 
_Metriacanthosaurus_ were placed in the Spinosauridae - back when the 
Spinosauridae was a catch-all for any tall-spined theropod.



Tim

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