Most important paper for 2004?

[jay nair <sappororaptor@yahoo.com>]

Mickey replied to Vladim Socha's message with-

I think Dilong is far more novel than any of the
others listed.  Other basal tyrannosauroids are known
from much less complete remains AND this clinched
the debate on whether basal tyrannosaurs had feathers.
 Unaysaurus is an unremarkable prosauropod, Rugops is
one of many fragmentary abelisaurs, 
and Mei is very similar to Sinovenator but in the same
position as Sinornithoides.

I agree with Mickey here. In my opinion i think Dilong
is the most important NAMED dinosaur of 2004. Please
keep in mind that many dinosaur discoveries could
actually be made years before thier naming.  Other
important announcements of 2004 include Mirischia,
Talenkauen, Huaxiagnathus and Limaysaurus. You'll
notice nany of these are not from Asia. Certainly,
Mirischia, Talenkauen, and Limaysaurus, which are
gondwanan, add to the knowledge of groups that were
better known from Laurasia. Personally i think, these
are more important than say, a Mei, which is one of
many recently named troodontids from Asia.  In other
words, except for phylogenetic/evolutionary data, Mei
doesn't add significantly to our understanding of
troodontids. In contrast, Limayasaurus's announment
(in JVP) significantly improves the data on
rebbachisaurids in South America, just as Nigersaurus
did a few years ago in Africa. Before either, the
Rebbachisauridae was poorly represented.

Moving on, many significant announcements don't
involve the naming of taxa.  For dinosaurs in 2004,
what do you guys think?

Also, i wonder what you reckon would be the most
important paper published in 2004 and why.

Obviously, I haven't seen all of them, but for mine,
it's 
Weishampel, D. B., Barrett, P. M., Coria, R. A., Le
Loeuff, J., Xu, X., Zhao, X., Sahni, A., Gomani, E. M.
P., and Noto, C. R. 2004. Dinosaur distribution. In:
Weishampel, D. B., Dodson, P., and Osmolska, H.
(eds.). The Dinosauria, Second Edition. University of
California Press, Berkeley. Pp 517-606. 
 
This is a paper of significant length, was published
in what would be a very well known source for future
students, would be easily accesible, and would be
widely used and cited in future papers, i think.

what do you guys think?

Have a safe and happy new year all,

Sappororaptor
 


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