More New Papers

["Jerry D. Harris" <jharris@dixie.edu>]

Dinos first, of course:


Lü, J., Azuma, Y., Wang, T., Li, S., and Pan, S. 2006. The first discovery 
of dinosaur footprint from Lugeng of Yunnan Province, China. Memoir of the 
Fukui Prefectural Museum 5:35-39.

ABSTRACT: Lufengopus dongi, a new ichnogenus and ichnospecies of theropod 
dinosaur footprint is erected. The holotype is from the Upper Lufeng 
Formation of the Middle Jurassic, Lufeng County, Yunnan Province of southern 
China. Lufengopus dongi gen. et sp. nov. is characterized by its large size 
(the maximum length is approximately 40 cm), and relatively wider width 
between the second and fourth toes, the ratio of the maximum length to width 
of the footprint is 1.25. The discovery of the large-sized theropod dinosaur 
footprint provides a strong evidence for the potential findings of large 
theropod dinosaur bones

Azuma, Y., Li, R., Currie, P.J., Dong, Z., Shibata, M., and Lü, J. 2006. 
Dinosaur footprints from the Lower Cretaceous of Inner Mongolia, China. 
Memoir of the Fukui Prefectural Dinosaur Museum 5:1-14.

ABSTRACT: More than a thousand dinosaur footprints, ranging in size from 2 
cm to more than 20 cm, have been discovered in the Lower Cretaceous of the 
Ordos Plateau, Inner Mongolia. Each was measured and mapped, and enough 
specimens were excavated to fill 180 crates. The majority of footprints 
represent tridactyl, bipedal dinosaurs, and represent six different types, 
comprising a "footprint fauna" remarkably similar to those from Early 
Cretaceous sites in Korea, Japan and Canada. Numerous localities in the 
Ordos have produced Early Cretaceous dinosaur skeletons, but depositional 
environments favoring preservation of footprints were significantly 
different from those preserving body fossils.

Both available on-line at 
http://www.dinosaur.pref.fukui.jp/archive/memoir/memoir005.html



Onto non-dinos (but still interesting animals!):

Bulanov, V.V., and Sennikov, A.G. 2006. The first gliding reptiles from the 
Upper Permian of Russia. Paleontological Journal 40(suppl. 5):S567-S570. 
doi: 10.1134/S0031030106110037.

ABSTRACT: Two new gliding reptiles from the Late Permian Kul'chumovo-A 
locality (Orenburg Region), Rautiania alexandri gen. et sp. nov. and R. 
minichi sp. nov., are described and assigned to the family Weigeltisauridae. 
These finds substantially expand the knowledge of the morphology of this 
group and suggest the climax state of terrestrial tetrapod communities of 
eastern Europe in the pre-Triassic Time, which resulted in the development 
of ecological niches not typical of earlier terrestrial vertebrate faunas.


Averianov, A.O., and Lopatin, A.V. 2006. Itatodon tatarinovi (Tegotheriidae, 
Mammalia), a docodont from the Middle Jurassic of western Siberia and 
phylogenetic analysis of Docodonta. Paleontological Journal 40(6):668-677. 
doi: 10.1134/S0031030106060098.

ABSTRACT: Itatodon tatarinovi Lopatin et Averianov, 2005 is represented by 
two lower molars and a lower molar fragment from the upper part of the Itat 
Formation (Bathonian Stage) of the Berezovskii quarry (southern Krasnoyarsk 
Region). Based on the presence of a pseudotalonid, bordered by the crests 
a-b, b-e, e-g, and a-g, Itatodon is assigned to the endemic Asian family 
Tegotheriidae. In this genus, the crest a-b is reduced and the thick lingual 
cingulid is better developed than that of other docodonts. Phylogenetic 
analysis of Docodonta shows paraphyly of Morganucodonta relative to 
docodonts and independent development of the pseudotalonid in the 
Tegotheriidae and the clade comprising Krusatodon, Castorocauda, 
Cyrtlatherium, and Dsungarodon.


Evans, S.E., Manabe, M., Noro, M., Isaji, S., and Yamaguchi, M. 2006. A 
long-bodied lizard from the Lower Cretaceous of Japan. Palaeontology 
49(6):1143-. doi: 10.1111/j.1475-4983.2006.00598.x.

ABSTRACT: Platynotan lizards underwent a dramatic Late Cretaceous radiation 
into marine habitats. Beginning with small-bodied forms, the lineage 
culminated with the mosasaurs, large predatory lizards with a world-wide 
distribution in the Santonian-Campanian. Moreover, the marine squamate 
radiations of the Cenomanian-Turonian are remarkable in having produced a 
range of long-bodied, reduced-limbed swimmers (dolichosaurs, adriosaurs, 
coniasaurs and limbed snakes) that seem to have thrived in the shallow 
coastal environments of the Western Tethys region. Until now, none of these 
long-bodied aquatic squamates has been recorded prior to the Cenomanian, 
none has been recovered from a non-marine locality and none is known from 
Asia. Here we describe a small, gracile, long-bodied mosasauroid lizard from 
a swampy continental deposit in the Lower Cretaceous of Japan.

Nice name for the last one -- _Kaganaias_.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jerry D. Harris
Director of Paleontology
Dixie State College
Science Building
225 South 700 East
St. George, UT  84770   USA
Phone: (435) 652-7758
Fax: (435) 656-4022
E-mail: jharris@dixie.edu
and     dinogami@gmail.com
http://cactus.dixie.edu/jharris/

"Trying to estimate the divergence times
of fungal, algal or prokaryotic groups on
the basis of a partial reptilian fossil and
protein sequences from mice and humans
is like trying to decipher Demotic Egyptian with
the help of an odometer and the Oxford
English Dictionary."
              -- D. Graur & W. Martin (_Trends
                  in Genetics_ 20[2], 2004)