THOSE SAUROPODS AND THEIR PLATES - OH! AND MARINE REPTILES....

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

Sorry if I gave the wrong impression with the 'platy' sauropods. The plate-
like scales I referred to were big, overlapping things like you get in a
pangolin or an armadillo lizard. Not the rounded bumps like titanosaurid 
scutes.

MARINE REPTILES

Here in England we are, it's true, well endowed in the marine reptile
department. Hardly bother looking at them when you visit a local museum (Oh
look, Ophthalmosaurus, oh yeah.... Eurhinosaurus, oh look, Stenopterygius..).
But there's been some well awesome recent discoveries: new ichthyosaurs,
plesiosaurs and pliosaurs abound in UK geo mags (sometimes). Scutes from
(probably) a small thyreophoran were found within the skeleton of a big 
pliosaur recently and a newly discovered, giant ichthyosaur is presently on
dislay at Bristol. Gareth? Has it been described yet.

There are many links (however tenuous) between ichthyosaurs and their modern
mimics, the cetaceans. But here's one that's never mentioned (to my knowledge):
a stranded school of the late Triassic giant Shonisaurus are known (from, is it,
Nevada?). It's been shown that ichthyosaurs couldn't echolocate, so if they
could strand then cetaceans surely don't strand because of probs. with their
echolocation. Make sense? 

Must go now, bye all....