Re: new sauropod from Thailand

[bocheren@ccr.jussieu.fr]

>Can you get more info on this?
>What family do they say it belongs to?
>Or is it supposed to be a new family?
>
>swf@elsegundoca.ncr.com         sarima@netcom.com
>
>The peace of God be with you.

Here are a few more things about this new sauropod from the original article.

- Sedimentological data indicate that the landscape in which the sauropods
lived was a floodplain with a low-energy meandering river system. The
climate seems to have been semi-arid, with two distinct seasons.

- The new taxon is based on a partly articulated skeleton from Phu Pratu
Teema, which consists of three cervical vertebrae, four dorsal vertebrae,
severla ribs, the left scapula and the distal end of the right one, the
left humerus and part of the left ulna, bot hsides of the pelvis, both
femora and the left fibula.

- Most of the abundant sauropod bones found in the Phu Wiang and Kalasin
areas, including the important juvenile material, are referrable to
_Phuwiangosaurus sirindhornae_.

- Middle sized sauropod (15 to 20 m long)

- _Phuwiangosaurus sirindhornae_ does not show close similarities with any
sauropod family already described, so that it is provisionally referred to
an indeterminate family.

- A large number of very small bones are attributed to juvenile sauropods.
This abundant material corresponds to several growth stages, the smallest
individual seems to have been less than two metres long and half a metre
tall.

Forthcoming papers are referred to for additional details.


Herve Bocherens

Laboratoire de Biogeochimie Isotopique
Case 120
Universite Pierre et Marie Curie
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F-75252 PARIS Cedex 05 (FRANCE)

Tel: (1) 44 27 72 82
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