Re: Quaesitosaurus and Nemegtosaurus

["Tim Williams" <T.Williams@cclru.randwick.unsw.edu.au>]

In reply to George Olshevsky.
 
> Not in the least. This was first suggested by Greg Paul several years ago.
> Initially, other workers tended to disagree, because the postcranial skeleton
> of _O._ has many features found among camarasaurids, whereas the skulls of
> _N._ and _Q._ seemed to be diplodocoid. A recent reconstruction of the skull
> of _N._, however, suggests close affinities with brachiosaurids, therefore
> also camarasaurids, whereas Upchurch's cladistic study places _N._ and _Q._
> in their own family, Nemegtosauridae, as a basal sister group to diplodocids.

It's worth noting that Upchurch's cladistic analysis regarded 
_Opisthocoelicaudia_ not as camarasaur or even a diplodocoid, but as 
a titanosaur.  The postcranial skeleton of _O._ has a close OVERALL 
similarity to camarasaurids, but when it comes down to the nitty-
gritty, there's not too many synapomorphies linking the two together.

More importantly, I heard a report somewhere that diplodocid-like 
postcranial material was unearthed in the Nemegt Basin.  So, I'm 
prepared to leave _N._ disembodied for the time being (and _O._ 
without a head).

Tim Williams