New Paper on the Roof

["Thomas R. Holtz, Jr." <tholtz@umd.edu>]

Okay, I don't know if that one has been used yet, but it does reflect the
following paper (a forthcoming article in J Sys Palaeontol):

Susannah C. R. Maidment, David B. Norman, Paul M. Barrett and Paul Upchurch.
In press. Systematics and phylogeny of Stegosauria (Dinosauria:
Ornithischia). Journal of Systematic Palaeontology.
doi:10.1017/S1477201908002459

SYNOPSIS

Stegosauria is a clade of ornithischian dinosaurs characterised by a bizarre
array of dermal armour extending, in two parasagittal rows, from the
cervical region to the end of the tail. Although Stegosaurus is one of the
most familiar of all dinosaurs, little is known regarding the evolutionary
history of this clade.

Alpha-level taxonomic revision of all proposed stegosaur taxa shows that 11
species of stegosaur can be regarded as valid on the basis of
autapomorphies. These are: Dacentrurus armatus and Loricatosaurus priscus
(gen. nov.) from Europe; Kentrosaurus aethiopicus and Paranthodon africanus
from Africa; Tuojiangosaurus multispinus, Chungkingosaurus jiangbeiensis,
Huayangosaurus taibaii, Gigantspinosaurus sichuanensis and Stegosaurus
homheni (comb. nov.) from China; and Stegosaurus mjosi (comb. nov.) and
Stegosaurus armatus from North America.

A cladistic analysis of Stegosauria (the first to be based upon direct
observation of all relevant specimens) is presented, which indicates that
Tuojiangosaurus, Loricatosaurus and Paranthodon are sister taxa to
Stegosaurus. Stegosaurinae can be defined as all stegosaurs more closely
related to Stegosaurus than to Dacentrurus; Stegosauridae is defined as all
stegosaurs more closely related to Stegosaurus than to Huayangosaurus; and
Huayangosauridae can be defined as all stegosaurs more closely related to
Huayangosaurus than to Stegosaurus. This study is also the first
phylogenetic analysis to include Gigantspinosaurus, which is recovered as
the most basal stegosaur.



Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
Email: tholtz@umd.edu   Phone: 301-405-4084
Office: Centreville 1216                        
Senior Lecturer, Vertebrate Paleontology
Dept. of Geology, University of Maryland
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~tholtz/
Fax: 301-314-9661               

Faculty Director, Earth, Life & Time Program, College Park Scholars
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~jmerck/eltsite/
Fax: 301-405-0796

Mailing Address:        Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
                        Department of Geology
                        Building 237, Room 1117
                        University of Maryland
                        College Park, MD 20742 USA