PACHYPODS, BLOOPERS, V. EARLY DINOS

["D.W.Naish" <dwn194@soton.ac.uk>]

THE PACHYPODA

Some time ago I said that dinosaurs were called pachypods before they were ever
called dinosaurs. Owen coined 'Dinosauria' in 1841-2, but Von Meyer already
named the Pachypoda (for Iguanodon, Megalosaurus, Plateosaurus) previously. 
Here in the UK we are only just receiving the winter'95 issue of Dinosaur
Report. In that issue is a thoroughly redeable article by Ben Chriesler (I've
probably spelt his name wrong) - Huxley was actually responsible for telling
everyone that 'Pachypoda' had priority, but it seemed he lied. So Owen's
Dinosauria is not a 'claim jump' after all.

I'm normally bored senseless with historical accounts of 19th century
discoveries, probably because the same stuff is repeated ad nauseum in every
dinosaur book (Mantell, Crystal Palace, Buckland, Owen, Scrotum, Plot etc). But
Ben's article (I won't use his surname again until I can spell it right) was
really enjoyable and I thoroughly recommend it. Incidentally, in the same issue
is an article by our own Dr. Holtz on tyrannosaurid phylogeny ('Super-
carnosaurs' or 'Tyrannoraptors'?), which is obviously very good. ALSO this list
got a mention because there is an article on net dino-information. Here's a new
idea: the info. discussed on this list is out of bounds to those unfortunate
individuals that don't have/use e-mail. How about someone suggesting that a
quaterly 'review' of the discussions, kind of a gross summary, be made and
submitted to the Dinosaur Society? I'm sure everyone would be interested in 
what goes on here, but are other members (and Mickey..) keen for the influx 
that would follow?

VERY EARLY DINOSAURS

Be extremely careful with news regarding dinosaurs from extremely early in the
Mesozoic. Only bother thinking about it if the publication is a 'respectable'
one. As an example, the European children's magazine 'Wild About Animals'
paraded some major scientific news on the discovery of DINOSAURS FROM THE
PERMIAN some months back. This caused a bit of a stir in our little circles,
despite its obviously element of unbelievability. It turned out that they were
talking about pareiosaurs, which of course are not really much to do with
dinosaurs at all. 300 m.y.a. seems too old for true dinosaurs, but let's just
wait and see......

THANKS TO ALL WHO HELPED WITH THE NOASAUR-ALVAREZSAUR QUERIES. Now all I have
to do is get hold of the relevant literature.

Err..... wasn't I going to talk about something else? Better check out my
title.....

"That boy is our last hope"  "No................. there is another"

DARREN NAISH