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African fossil vertebrates



Durand, 2005. Major African contributions to Palaeozoic and Mesozoic vertebrate palaeontology .Journal of African Earth Sciences. In Press.

Here's a new article that shows the importance of not having one person review such a broad category as African fossil vertebrates.

Blikanasaurus is discussed as a prosauropod (based on its original description), while Antetonitrus and Melanorosaurus are called sauropods (based on Yates' new papers). Kitching and Raath's (1984) synonymization of Melanorosaurus with Euskelosaurus is brought up as if relevent.

Megapnosaurus rhodiensis (sic) is "known only from fragmentary skeletons", because only the description of the holotype partial skeleton and some referred fragments from South Africa are referenced.

Carroll (1988) is given as the reference for 'some' believing that Vulcanodon is intermediate between prosauropods and sauropods. Barosaurus and Dicraeosaurus are apparently cetiosaurids, while Cetiosaurus mogrebiensis was renamed Atlasaurus imelakei. Janenschia is a Middle Jurassic brachiosaurid. Rebbachisaurus and Nigersaurus are discussed under brachiosaurids. "It now seems as if Lapparentosaurus was based upon juvenile material later ascribed to Bothriospondylus of which a partial skeleton has been discovered in Europe." Er, no. That's backwards. Lapparentosaurus was based on material previously ascribed to Bothriospondylus. "The material initially referred to as Bothriospondylus in Madagascar consists of a single tooth and is now regarded as indeterminate." No, the holotype of Bothriospondylus madagascariensis consists of vertebrae and limb elements. Algoasaurus is a titanosaurid, and Paralititan is "the largest titanosaur known".

The theropod foot apparently originated during the "initial development of bipedalism". Maybe Durand is a BCFist who advocates basal dinosaurian quadrupedality? We have the new family Tetanuridae. "The abelisaurids Majungatolus and Majungatholus from the Late Cretaceous of Madagascar were much larger (8?9 m in length) however and could have been the top predators of their time (Sues and Taquet, 1979)." I'm sure Sues and Taquet mentioned neither Majungatholus nor the imaginary Majungatolus as predators in their paper, since they were describing Majungatholus as a pachycephalosaur. Spinosaurus is semi-aquatic. "Carchardontosaurus, which was larger than Tyrannosaurus, is the biggest terrestrial carnivorous dinosaur discovered so far." Durand might have just been envious of South America when it came to Paralititan vs. Argentinosaurus, but there's no need to exaggerate Carcharodontosaurus' size when you have Spinosaurus on your continent.

Mickey Mortimer