RE: SALTRIOSAURUS

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

> From: owner-dinosaur@usc.edu [mailto:owner-dinosaur@usc.edu]On Behalf Of
> Fabio Marco Dalla Vecchia
>
> Shuko Funaki wrore:
> >>News articles at Yahoo, CNN, ABC say "The dinosaur, tentatively dubbed
> Saltriosaur ..."  Could it be Saltriosaurus, not Saltriosaur? Does
> anybody know?
>
> It is SALTRIOSAURUS, after "Saltrio", the town near the finding place in
> Lombardy, Northern Italy.
> It is the subject of my last message to the list (the Sinemurian large
> theropod with a furcula).

Although I do agree with the importance of the saltriosaur in terms of being
the oldest known large bodied tetanurine, and possibly the oldest known
large bodied Gondwanan theropod (since Lombardy and similar regions of
southern Europe may have been Gondwanan in the Jurassic), it is not the
oldest known tetanurine nor possesses the oldest known furcula.

Furculae are now known (or associated with) coelophysoid dinosaurs,
including Ghost Ranch material (although there is some caution about the
isolated material, given the similarity of some gastral elements of various
critters in the block to theropod furculae).  Furthermore, as Luis Chiappe
has pointed out, a Norian (Late Triassic) tetanurine has been reported from
Argentina, and (assuming for the moment monophyly of neoceratosaurs and
coelophysoids to the exclusion of tetanurines) Late Triassic tetanurines
were already expected.

This is not to diminish the importance of the new specimen, but simply to
put it into the context of recent discoveries.

P.S.  Still no news on price information, etc., for GAIA 15.  Sorry.

                Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
                Vertebrate Paleontologist
Department of Geology           Director, Earth, Life & Time Program
University of Maryland          College Park Scholars
                College Park, MD  20742
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~tholtz/tholtz.htm
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~jmerck/eltsite
Phone:  301-405-4084    Email:  tholtz@geol.umd.edu
Fax (Geol):  301-314-9661       Fax (CPS-ELT): 301-405-0796