[Darren Naish: New archaeopterygid and early macronarian papers]

[mike@miketaylor.org.uk (Mike Taylor)]

I forward this message from Darren Naish, in which he unvails stunning
news about a partial camarasaur neural arch, and also something about
some crappy theropod.

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From: "Darren Naish" <darren.naish@port.ac.uk>
To: mike@miketaylor.org.uk
Subject: New archaeopterygid and early macronarian papers
Date: Mon, 15 May 2006 13:19:15 +0100

Mike, please fwd the following the DML for me..

---------------------------
The following papers just in...

Moser, M., Mathur, U. B., Fursich, F. T., Pandey, D. K. & 
Mathur, N. 2006. Oldest camarasauromorph sauropod 
(Dinosauria) discovered in the Middle Jurassic (Bajocian) 
of the Khadir Island, Kachchh, western India. 
_Palaontologische Zeitschrift_ 80, 34-51.

Material (neural arch fragment, partial metacarpal, 
proximal end of fibula, pedal ungual etc.) from the Khadir 
Formation represents an unnamed camarasauromorph 
(used here as synonymous with Macronaria, and argued by 
the authors to be identical in content with 
Camarasauromorpha). The Khadir Fm fibula is shown to 
possess a steep diagonal line demarcating a proximal area 
of ligamentous contact from the rest of the fibula's medial 
surface, and elsewhere this is present only in 
_Camarasaurus_. The specimen is therefore taken to 
belong to an early camarasaurid. When considering the 
early age of this material, don't forget that wide-gauge 
titanosaur tracks are known from the Bathonian of the UK, 
so the presence of macronarians/camarasauromorphs at 
this time is expected.

Mayr, G. 2005. Das zehnte Skeletexemplar eines 
Archaeopterygiden. _Archaeopteryx_ 23, 1-2.

Brief note on the Thermopolis specimen.

Wellnhofer, P. & Roper, M. 2005. Das neunte 
_Archaeopteryx_-Examplar von Solnhofen - Zum 
Gejdenken an John H. Ostrom. _Archaeopteryx_ 23, 3-21. 

The 9th specimen, discovered in 2004 at the 'Alter 
Steinberg' quarry, is described. It's the oldest specimen 
and consists only of a disarticulated incomplete right wing 
skeleton, with some remige impressions. Based on 
proportions it's referred to _A. lithographica_ (the authors 
regard _A. bavarica_ as valid). The bone surface texture 
indicates that the specimen was a juvenile, and when 
complete it would have had a wingspan of c. 570 mm. 
Excellent photos provided.

Videler, J. J. 2005. How _Archaeopteryx_ could run over 
water. _Archaeopteryx_ 23, 23-32.

The latest installment in the saga (see Videler 2000 and 
Ma et al. 2002). Using lots of theoretical physics, it is 
argued that archaeopterygids could have run, basilisk-like, 
across the water surface. You'd need to be an expert in the 
dynamics of surface tension and so on to determine 
whether or not the physics is flawed, but the anatomy is 
still against this idea. Published with the article is a letter 
from one of the reviewers (Stefan Bornholt). Bornholt 
argues that the paper deserves publication because the 
physics is apparently sound. 

Tischlinger, H. 2005. Neue Information zum Berliner 
Exemplar von _Archaeopteryx lithographica_ H. v, Meyer 
1861. _Archaeopteryx_ 23, 33-50.

New historical data on the Berlin specimen, but most 
noteworthy is new UV data on the specimen. Outstanding 
photos reveal.... a complete postorbital bar! It's clearly 
there, forming a gently concave caudal margin to the orbit. 
Outstanding. So much for 'Dollo's law' and the 
confuciusornithids.

Elzanowski, A., Manegold, A. & Peters, D. S. 2005. 
Redescriptio of a skull of _Confuciusornis sanctus_. 
_Archaeopteryx_ 23, 51-55.

Taking issue with Goernemann (1999), some new data is 
provided. Some specimens have an incomplete postorbital 
bar - incomplete apparently because it is a secondary 
ossification in this taxon (the authors couldn't have known 
about the former paper while writing their MS) - and some 
appear to lack it. The last point is only mentioned in 
passing in the discussion section unfortunately. A more 
detailed MS is in press I understand.

And that is that.

-- 
Darren Naish
School of Earth & Environmental Sciences
Burnaby Building, Burnaby Rd
University of Portsmouth 
Portsmouth, UK, PO1 3QL

email: darren.naish@port.ac.uk
[send large attachments to: eotyrannus@gmail.com]
tel: 023 92846045

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