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RE: New papers on the dinosaur formerly known as Syntarsus (no more "Megapnosaurus")



From: "Jaime A. Headden" <qilongia@yahoo.com>
Reply-To: qilongia@yahoo.com
To: dinosaur@usc.edu
CC: archosauromorph2@hotmail.com
Subject: RE: New papers on the dinosaur formerly known as Syntarsus (no more "Megapnosaurus")
Date: Tue, 28 Jun 2005 19:52:57 -0700 (PDT)


Which reminds me. The initial description of *Syntarsus kayentakatae* used
the nature of the nasolachrymoprefrontal fontanelle (or nasal fenestra) as the
diagnostic feature linking *kayentakatae* to *rhodesiensis*, thus validating
the species's assignment into *Syntarsus*. If this feature is an artefact in
*rhodesiensis*, then what is the condition in *kayentakatae*? It is likely,
with regards to the shorter snout and crests, that *kayentakatae* represents a
taxon other than *Coelophysis* or *Syntarsus* and thankfully, the name
*Megapnosaurus* cannot be applied to it without *rhodesiensis*.


  Cheers,

Jaime A. Headden

Last night I did a bit more reading on ?*C. kayentakatae*, and it does seem to have several other *Dilophosaurus*-like characteristics independent of the crests. So despite every published cladogram linking it with *C. rhodesiensis* and far from *Dilophosaurus*, I think it's possible that someone could make a good case for it not being *Coelophysis*.