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Re: Spinosaurus Question



Christopher Taylor wrote:

Has anyone ever designated a lectotype from among the _Spinosaurus_
material (assuming that all the original material had equal type
status)?

AFAIK, no lectotype has been designated for _Spinosaurus_. As I understand it, the situation is complicated by the fact that the type material no longer exists, and there's no incontrovertible referred material to erect a neotype for _Spinosaurus_.


In the event of the _Spinosaurus_ hypodigm containing
material from multiple species, does the name stay with the dorsal
spines, or is this potentially an _Altispinax_/_Vulcanodon_-type
situation where the name is based on a feature not demonstrable in
the actual type material?

Yeah, good point. I've asked the same question. http://dml.cmnh.org/2003Jun/msg00047.html


To recapitulate what Rauhut said:

(1) The _Spinosaurus_ dorsals are lacking the strong pneumatization and extra laminae of _Baryonyx_/_Suchomimus_, and are more similar to the dorsals of allosauroids.

(2) The cervical assigned to _Spinosaurus_ is morphologically too different from the dorsals to belong to the same theropod taxon.

(3) The proximal caudal assigned to _Spinosaurus_ is too large to belong to the same individual as the dorsals, and its morphology suggests that it may actually be from an ornithischian.

Cheers

Tim

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