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Dinosaur Genera List corrections #126



First a couple of minor corrections:

(1) Change the date of Compsognathus to 1859 from 1861. I think there is 
enough information in Wagner's 1859 note introducing the genus to consider it 
a description.

(2) Remove the asterisk from Nuthetes. Recent work reported by Angela Milner 
at a meeting on the Purbeck (D. Naish, pers. comm.) indicates Nuthetes is 
some kind of dromaeosaurid and not a lacertilian.

These corrections also apply to the file of European dinosaurs, of course.

Now some major corrections:

I recently received copies of two different privately published booklets, 
both identically titled An Extract from: Archosauromorpha: Cladistics & 
Osteologies. These were produced by

Stephan Pickering
4950 Capitola Road
Capitola, California 95010, USA

and are available from him. There is no cover price listed, so inquiries 
should ask about price and shipping costs. Presumably more such booklets will 
be forthcoming.

The first of these is 70 pages long and describes in great detail a new 
species of Dilophosaurus, D. breedorum (named to honor the family of William 
J. Breed, who assisted Sam Welles in collecting the type specimen). It is 
based on skeletal material (UCMP 77270, at University of California Museum of 
Paleontology at Berkeley) including a well preserved partial skull that shows 
the cranial crests. Recall that the type specimen of Dilophosaurus wetherilli 
includes a skull lacking the crests, and that when Welles (1970) restored the 
skull of Dilophosaurus this was the specimen he used for the crests. In 1984 
Welles opined that this specimen represented a different species of Dilophosau
rus from the type. His manuscript describing the species remained unpublished 
during his lifetime, so evidently Stephan Pickering has completed it and 
gotten it into print.

Pickering attributes the species to Welles, 1995, but this must be a 
manuscript date, since the description was not published then and has only 
appeared through Pickering's efforts this year (1999). So I add

    D. breedorum Welles, 1995 vide Welles & Pickering, 1999

to the list of species under Dilophosaurus in the file of North American 
dinosaurs. The authors of the description that Pickering published are given 
as Welles & Pickering.

Among the genera and species tabulated in the comparative study of D. 
breedorum are some more new theropod taxa. Since none is itself described in 
the paper, they must be regarded as nomina nuda. Presumably they are 
described in Welles's unpublished manuscript (with H. Phillip Powell) on 
British theropods, or in some other manuscript that Pickering has in 
preparation. No date is given for these species:

Walkersaurus Welles vide Welles & Pickering, 1999 [nomen nudum]
(new generic name for Megalosaurus hesperis Waldman, 1974)

Ceratosaurus willisobrienorum Welles & Pickering, 1999 [nomen nudum]
(several specimens are noted for this species, so I cannot tell which, if 
any, is the type specimen)

Newtonsaurus Welles vide Welles & Pickering, 1999 [nomen nudum]
(new generic name for Zanclodon cambrensis, also known as Megalosaurus 
cambrensis)

Note that I omit the vide attribution for Ceratosaurus willisobrienorum, 
since I believe that name is Pickering's creation, not Welles's.

The second booklet is 121 pages long and contains an extensive redescription 
of Megalosaurus bucklandii. The authors are given as Welles, Powell, and 
Pickering. No publication date is provided in the text, but it has to be this 
year as well, 1999.

Among the dinosaurs in the comparative section are the following new species:

Metriacanthosaurus reynoldsi Welles, Powell & Pickering, 1999 [nomen nudum]
Metriacanthosaurus brevis Welles, Powell & Pickering, 1999 [nomen nudum]
Megalosaurus phillipsi Welles, Powell & Pickering, 1999 [nomen nudum]

Some of the other new species mentioned previously are also noted.

This paper is clearly extracted from the Welles & Powell theropod manuscript 
and completed by Pickering.

On the front of each booklet are strings of copyright notices dating back to 
1974. Since the material was certainly not published on those dates, it is 
not clear what is being copyrighted. Copyrighting a manuscript does not 
establish priority for taxonomic names under the ICZN; only actual 
publication does. Also, there is no evidence within the publication itself 
that it is freely available in multiple copies from the publisher (Stephan 
Pickering), for sale or for free, as required by the ICZN to be considered a 
publication for purposes of zoological nomenclature. I do not know whether 
this is an intentional or unintentional omission by the publisher, but if he 
can supply these booklets in response to orders, then I would say they're 
legitimate publications.

In any case, I now add genera #870 and 871 to the Dinosaur Genera List:

Newtonsaurus Welles vide Welles & Pickering, 1999 [nomen nudum]
Walkersaurus Welles vide Welles & Pickering, 1999 [nomen nudum]

The [nomen nudum] will drop when the actual descriptions of these genera 
appear in print. As far as I know, both genera were originated by Welles (or 
perhaps Welles & Powell) more than 20 years ago when the theropod manuscript 
was being written (R. A. Long, pers. comm.), and they have finally appeared 
in (some kind of) published form. There are other new taxa in the Welles & 
Powell manuscript that have not yet been mentioned in print (as far as I 
know). I also know there is an ongoing project in Great Britain to redescribe 
the theropod material there, including Megalosaurus bucklandii, but I have no 
idea what impact the existence of these two papers will have on those studies.

The lists of North American and European dinosaurs should be updated to 
include the aforementioned new taxa.

Copies of my files of dinosaur species by continent are now available on the 
Internet at T. Mike Keesey's Web site:

http://dinosaur.umbc.edu/rigby/index.html

Go there and download them, or simply email me and I will upload the files by 
return email. Both Mac (RTF) and Windows (DOC) files are available at the Web 
site. My files may be slightly more up to date, since I will not be 
forwarding copies to the Web site every single time I update them.

Regarding Stephan Pickering: Although I haven't corresponded with him in 
recent years, I have known him for about two decades, and he has been very 
helpful at times in supplying information from his Fractal Scaling in 
Dinosaurology Projects to Tracy Ford and to me. Tracy continues to send him 
copies of new papers from time to time and to exchange publications with him. 
I think he may have quite a lot to offer to the vertebrate paleontological 
community.