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NEW IGUANODON ORIENTALIS PAPER..



At last - I've spent all day trying to mail this without success
(problem with our server again). Just to make a change from news on
theropods, I present this ref:

NORMAN, D.B. 1996. On Mongolian ornithopods (Dinosauria:
Ornithischia). 1.  _Iguanodon orientalis_ Rozhdestvensky
1952. _Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society_ 116: 303-315

Apologies if anyone has posted this ref before: if they have I haven't
seen it.

Norman reviews the type material of this taxon and describes some new
stuff too: importantly, as Tom stated some time ago, it turns out that
_orientalis_ is indistinguishable from _I. bernissartensis_ Boulenger
1881, and 'it is proposed that _I. orientalis_ should be relegated in
synonymy as a junior subjective synonym of _I. bernissartensis_
Boulenger 1881.' Judging from the figured material and what I've so
far read of the paper, the type material consists of a right maxilla,
portions of the nasal and premax, and a scapula.  This material
enjoyed specific status mainly because of its maxillary tooth count
(27) - _I. bernissartensis_ was (according to Rozhdestvensky) thought
to have a max. of 23.... in fact, _bernissartensis_ can have as many
as 29.

As Tom did note, this is considerable food for palaeobiogeographical
thought: 'The identification of the Barremian species
_I. bernissartensis_ in Asia indicates an unusually wide geographic
spread for this species, and provides a potential biostratigraphic
indicator for beds in Mongolia which have been previously dated
variously between the Cenomanian and Maastrichtian stages.'

The '1' in the paper title obviously suggests more work to come, and
'NORMAN DB, KURZANOV SM. in prep' is given in the ref list. It's
titled: On Mongolian ornithopods 2. A new species of
iguanodontian. Goodee!

"They say time is the fire in which we burn."

DARREN NAISH