Re: Raptor Red and Heyday Of The Giants

[Tim Williams <twilliams_alpha@hotmail.com>]

Hi Mike

It's nice to see a DML thread swing toward sauropods, instead of being 
devoted to those groups that sauropods liked to step on....  ;-)

> Yes indeed!  I half-tried to persuade Darren to formally name it so.
> But deep in my heart, I knew he was right not to :-)

Yep, sad but true.  Good call on Darren's part.

> I now feel that
> -poseidon should become the default prefix for brachiosaurids, just as
> -mimus is for ornithomimids, -pelta is a ankylosaurs, etc.

I'm not sure about the "Poseidon" suffix.  Firstly, I like "Titan" better as 
a suffix (_Giraffatitan_, _Lusititan_, _Gondwanatitan_, _Gobititan_, etc).  
Secondly, although the Greek god Poseidon was associated with earthquakes, 
he is more familiar as a sea deity - as the Greek equivalent of the Roman 
Neptune.  People may get the wrong idea that sauropods were aquatic if they 
see all these sauropods named after "Poseidon".  (I was going to entitle one 
of my DML messages "Sauroposeidon Adventure")

> > [...] - like _Borealosaurus_.
>
> I would consider that a fine example of a specimen that should _not_
> have been named.

The type material of _Borealosaurus_ does have one unique character: the 
middle caudal has an opisthocoelous centrum.  No other sauropod has this; 
even the strong opisthocoely of _Opisthocoelicaudia_'s caudals peter out by 
the middle of the tail.

As it happens, I've written a manuscript about the validity of _Titanosaurus 
indicus_ if you'd like to see it.  (I say the species is valid based on 
caudal characters; but I don't refer _Antarctosaurus septentrionalis_ to 
it.)

> ... and to stop naming more of the buggers!  :-)

Agreed!!


Tim