Re: Spinosaurus questions and the presence of air=.

[Dinogeorge@aol.com]

In a message dated 5/30/03 2:51:52 PM EST, twilliams_alpha@hotmail.com writes:

<< 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_. >>

Sorry, I read the article and I disagree completely. Huene attached the name 
>conditionally< to the vertebrae, the condition being that the tooth and the 
vertebrae could be shown to belong to the same species. This is impossible, 
given the nature of the material, and it is the tooth that is the type specimen 
of Altispinax dunkeri, not the vertebrae, because the tooth is the type 
specimen of the species Megalosaurus dunkeri (its original name). The name 
Altispinax 
remained a conditional name until Kuhn 1939 nominated M. dunkeri as the type 
species of the genus Altispinax. This made the vertebrae a referred specimen, 
until Greg Paul separated the vertebrae as their own species Acrocanthosaurus 
altispinax. The vertebrae are not referble to the genus Acrocanthosaurus, 
however, and required their own genus, which I supplied (Becklespinax). 
>Nothing< 
is referable to Altispinax, whose type species is based on a single tooth now 
apparently lost from the Marburg collection. I have been through this 100s of 
times already and I am quite correct.