forthcoming papers on phytosaurs and lepidosauromorphs (a bit of self promotion)

[Silvio Renesto <silvio.renesto@uninsubria.it>]

Dear all,
        In the forthcoming issue of  RIVISTA ITALIANA DI PALEONTOLOGIA E 
STRATIGRAFIA  109 n.3 (all in English, peer reviewed,  etc.), due to be out 
on December 2003,  there will be two papers on mesozoic reptiles:  Usually 
the abstracts can be browsed freely at the journal web site, but for 
technical reason (unknown  to me, having moved from there)  this is not yet 
possible. For this reason  titles and abstracts are reported here below for 
those interested. Other may push the trash button here.
The papers are:

Silvio Renesto & Renato Posenato

A NEW LEPIDOSAUROMORPH REPTILE FROM THE MIDDLE TRIASSIC OF THE DOLOMITES 
(NORTHERN ITALY)

Abstract. A new genus and species of diapsid reptile is described. The 
specimen was collected from the Anisian (Middle Triassic) succession of 
Monte Prà della Vacca (Kühwiesenkopf) in the Dolomites of Braies 
(Bolzano/Bozen, Northern Italy). Despite being incomplete, the specimen 
shows enough characters to allow its placement within Lepidosauriformes, 
close to the Middle Jurassic genus Marmoretta. The importance of this find 
lies in the great rarity of lepidosauriforms of Anisian age, an epoch 
approximating the appearance of the first members of the true Lepidosauria 
(rhyncocephalians and squamates). The new genus may thus add knowledge to 
the diversity of early lepidosaurians.

Emanuele Gozzi & Silvio Renesto

A complete specimen of Mystriosuchus (Reptilia, Phytosauria) from the Norian
(LAte Triassic) of Lombardy (Northern Italy)



Abstract: A complete and nearly articulated new phytosaur specimen is 
described in detail. The skeleton, about 4 metres long, has been collected 
from the uppermost level of the Calcare di Zorzino (Norian, Upper Triassic) 
in the small quarry of Endenna (Bergamo, Northern Italy). Available 
characters of the skull allow assignment of this long-snouted, uncrested 
phytosaur to Mystriosuchus planirostris Von Meyer 1863. The postcranial 
anatomy, detailed here for the first time for this species, suggests a 
stronger adaptation to aquatic life in Mystriosuchus than in other 
phytosaurs, and may increase available data to improve our knowledge of the 
systematic relatonships among phytosaurs. The discovery of this nearly 
complete skeleton in a marine intraplatfom basin suggests that a short 
post-mortem transport of the carcass occurred and thus this phytosaur may 
have lived other in a fresh water environment rather than in a shallow 
marine habitat, close to emerged lands.

Feel free to contact me on - or offlist as you think more opportune, if you 
want further info on the above stuff.

Information on the journal, subscriptions etc. can be found in the journal 
web site at

http://www.gp.terra.unimi.it/rivista/rivista.html

Thanks for reading until here and apologies for cross posting.
Cheers,

                                                        Silvio Renesto


_

"there's treasure everywhere"
                        (from a strip of Calvin & Hobbes)

"The bad man is the job of the good man"
                                (Lao Tzu)


Prof. Silvio Renesto
Department of Structural and Functional Biology
Università degli Studi dell'Insubria
via Dunant 3
21100 Varese
Tel. +39-0332-421560

e-mail: silvio.renesto@uninsubria.it