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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