Stegosaurus at NHM in London: how "Sarah" became "Sophie" + other stegosaur stuff

[Ben Creisler <bcreisler@gmail.com>]

Ben Creisler
bcreisler@gmail.com


More on Stegosaurus debut at the NHM in London


https://media.nhm.ac.uk/Press-releases/World-s-most-complete-Stegosaurus-on-show-from-4-December-16f.aspx


http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-30314544

**

Name change from "Sarah" to "Sophie"

A possibly confusing twist on the debut of the mounted, nearly
complete skeleton of Stegosaurus at the Natural History Museum  in
London.

The skeleton now on display is nicknamed "Sophie" after Sophie
Herrmann, daughter of Jeremy Herrmann, one of the main donors for the
purchase of the specimen for Natural History Museum.

However, the specimen was originally nicknamed "Sarah" after Sarah
Anderson, daughter of John Ed Anderson, who owned the Red Canyon Ranch
in Wyoming where the specimen was excavated. It has been referred to
as "Sarah" in the scientific literature.

**

Backstory on the London specimen--how a Stegosaurus fossil called
called "Sarah" later became "Sophie" at the Natural History Museum,
London.

Press release downloads in English from the Sauriermuseum Aathal in Switzerland:


http://www.sauriermuseum.ch/de/presse-partner/fr-medienschaffende/fr-medienschaffende.html#article403

***
More info and links  (in Spanish)

http://www.dinoastur.com/2014/12/05/stegosaurus-nhm-sophie-sarah/

http://www.dinoastur.com/2014/12/01/stegosaurus-nhm/

===========

Story of Kobi Siber, the Swiss dinosaur paleontologist in charge of
the Sauriermuseum Aathal and who helped dig up the skeleton now called
"Sophie"  (in German)

http://www.landbote.ch/detail/article/vom-hippie-zum-ehrendoktor-das-turbulente-leben-eines-pioniers/gnews/99291077/


=======


Privately published classification of Stegosauria

Vahe Demirjian recently brought  to my attention an online publication
that proposes scientific names in quotes for new taxa of stegosaurs.
In case these names get mentioned at some point, here's what seems to
be the case.

Roman E. Ulansky is a Russian dinosaur and paleoreptile enthusiast,
and hosts a dinosaur- and tetrapod-related website in Russian called
Dinoweb. He has also participated in compiling info for the Open
Dinosaur Project Databook. See:

http://www.sciences.drexel.edu/onsc/databook/odpdatabook.php



He recently self-published two dinosaur-related items in his
electronic journal Dinologia, made available online as free pdfs. One
is about theropods (in Russian) and the other (in English) is a table
of taxa in the Thyreophoria and Stegosauria. The theropod publication
is currently included in Google Scholar. The stegosaur publication has
proposed new generic and specific names given in quotes based on
species or material described by published researchers. There is no
description to distinguish the proposed new stegosaur taxa from
existing defined taxa, no museum catalog specimen designations for the
material,  and no list of the original references in full form. The
proposed new names would appear to have no formal status. The proposed
name "Sinopelta" is also preoccupied.

With that disclaimer, for people who are curious, here are the links:

NOTE:  Avoid clicking on the Russian pop-ups on the site, which may
download malicious software! The pdfs themselves appear to be clean
(when I scanned them).

http://www.dinoweb.narod.ru/

Theropoda pdf

Ulansky, R. E., 2014. Comments to origin, classification and the
global distribution of theropods (Dinosauria; Saurischia). Dinologia,
19 pp (in Russian).



http://dinoweb.narod.ru/Ulansky_2014_Origin_Class_Theropoda.pdf



Stegosauria pdf

Ulansky R. E., 2014. Dinosaurs Classification. Basal Thyreophora &
Stegosauria. Dinologia, 8 pp. (in English)

http://dinoweb.narod.ru/Ulansky_2014_Dinoclass_Stegosauria.pdf



Also on the site:

Dinosaur book demo (Saurischia chapter) in Russian. There is a
copyright disclaimer in Russian on the illustrations used and
selections from texts.

http://www.dinoweb.narod.ru/bookdemo.pdf

Paleocatalog (database guides to different groups of taxa) offered for sale

http://www.dinoweb.narod.ru/cat.html

Dinologia journal back issues

http://www.dinoweb.narod.ru/dinologia.htm