Re: polacanthus

[rowe@lepomis.psych.upenn.edu (Mickey Rowe)]

Dough!  Ken sent mail to me on two different accounts, and I didn't
see this until after I'd already included his other message.  The
following is Ken Carpenter's response to Tom Holtz' response to Darren
Naish:

>>NEW ANKYLOSAURS AND THEIR SHORT LEGS
>>
>> OK, OK.... yes, ankylosaurs (particularly some nodosaurids) have
>> short arms - but not legs! Mymoorapelta maysi is the name given to
>> Kirkland's new Morrison ankylosaur. It has short arms. An exciting
>> new possibilty (currently being written up by ?Carpenter and others)

No, by Kirkland.

>> is that 'nodosaurids' with big, lateral tail spikes belong to a
>> different family - the Polacanthidae. This was previously diagnosed
>> in the 19th century but since been sunk into Nodosauridae.  It would
>> include Mymoorapelta, Polacanthus and ?Sauropelta...
>
>   Can anyone actually find the original proposal for "Polacanthidae"?
>   When I last talked to Jim, and to George Olshevsky, both agreed
>   that the name was floating around out there, but neither could find
>   the original citation.

The first use (undiagnosed) was aparently Weiland in 1911 (Notes on
the armored dinosaurs Amer. J. Sci. 31, p. 118). I doubt the name is
valid because it has not been widely accepted, and besides, it was not
even used in conjunction with Polacanthus, but listed with several
other families.

>   And actually, where does Acanthopholis (and the Acanthopholidae)
>   belong in the newer ankylosaurian phylogenies?  Comments from anky
>   workers most appreciated.

Good question.  I'll wait until a revision of Acanthopholis is 
completed.

>   I think Sauropelta seems to be more similar to more typical Late K
>   Nodosauridae, and so probably will remain a nodosaurid.

True

>> I understand that Kirkland has just discovered another new Morrison
>> ankylosaur, which has now been named. Can anyone help?
>
>   I don't know about another Morrison one, but Kirkland has a
>   "polacanthid" from the Cedar Mountain (Aptian-Albian) which is
>   going to be named Gastonia. 

True also.