Re: Indosuchus sp. eytmology, please

["Mickey Mortimer" <Mickey_Mortimer111@msn.com>]

Tommy Bradley wrote-

> Second, and lastly, *I. rawesi*.  I found little-to-know info on this one,
> other then that it is synonymous with *Massospondylus rawesi* but it
didn't
> say exactly in which direction.  Is *I. rawesi* a junior synonym of *M.
> rawesi*?  And if not, does anyone know who this name honors?

That IS obscure.  Wasn't even in my files.  That's only happened once before
in the past few years.

I can't say what the etymology is, but the holotype of Massospondylus rawesi
is a provisionally indeterminate theropod tooth.  It has been referred to
Megalosaurus (Vianey-Liaud, Jain and Sahni, 1987) and Orthogoniosaurus
(Olshevsky, 1991).  The Megalosaurus referral is doubtful for the usual
reasons, while Olshevsky felt it was similar enough to Orthogoniosaurus'
holotype to be referred to it.  Of course, Orthogoniosaurus is just a tooth
as well, and a provisionally indeterminate one at that.  So I find referral
of "M." rawesi to any of these three genera a poor choice, though I suppose
Orthogoniosaurus is best due to phylogenetic and stratigraphic reasons.
I've only seen it referred to Indosuchus online, perhaps resulting from
misguided synonymization of Indosuchus and Orthogoniosaurus.  It's from a
different, but apparently contemporaneous, formation than Indosuchus and
Orthogoniosaurus.

Mickey Mortimer