Re: Alamosaurus as biggest North American sauropod

[Tim Williams <tijawi@gmail.com>]

Jaime Headden <qi_leong@hotmail.com> wrote:

>   The best strategy, in my opinion, is to simply do away with crap taxa.


I think this is a bit harsh.  If there is evidence for only one
sauropod taxon in a given provenance (region/locality/horizon/bed),
then that sauropod should be given the oldest available name.  Names
like _Astrodon_ and _Alamosaurus_ deserve to be kept around - and
arguably _Titanosaurus_ does as well, IMHO.  If the survival of "crap
taxa" requires the designation of a neotype, then so be it.


Sometimes it is necessary to do away with time-honored names that are
based on crap type material.  This has happened for _Deinodon_ and
_Trachodon_, and I think this fate is inevitable for _Troodon_.  But
it shouldn't be the default setting for any and all names.







Cheers

Tim