RE: Various other papers of interest in the latest Palaeontology

[Tim Williams <twilliams_alpha@hotmail.com>]

Mickey Mortimer wrote:

> Sankey (2002) purported to show that Paronychodon is a morphotype of 
> Richardoestesia? isosceles, based on morphology and relative abundance. The 
> details of this study have yet to be published, though it does make sense 
> stratigraphically, as both taxa first appear in Late Jurassic Europe and 
> spread to 
> North America in the Albian, with Late Cretaceous examples known from the 
> Western North America, Central Asia and Europe. It's also logical 
> anatomically, 
> as Richardoestesia? isosceles would be expected to have some unserrated and 
> possibly constricted teeth if it were microraptorian. It should be noted 
> Paronychodon has priority over Richardoestesia, and lacustris and caperatus 
> both have priority over isosceles. Also, Euronychodon has priority over 
> Asiamericana, and portuculensis has priority over both asiatica and 
> asiaticus. So if this synonymy is proven, none of the names associated with 
> straight-
> toothed Richardoestesia will survive synonymization.
>
> Sankey, 2002. Theropod dinosaur diversity in the latest Cretaceous 
> (Maastrichtian) of North America. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 22(3), 
> 103A.


Thanks Mickey.  So two follow-up questions...


(1) None of these nomenclatural acrobatics qualify yet as a formal 
synonymization?


(2) The above paragraph implies that the _Tripriodon caperatus_ holotype is a 
dinosaur (theropod) tooth after all, rather than from a mammal - correct?


Cheers

Tim


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