Anrarctosaurus, a titanosauroid (was Re: Q. & N.)

["Thomas R. Holtz, Jr." <th81@umail.umd.edu>]

At 11:43 AM 12/11/96 -0500, Tim Williams wrote:

>Tom Holtz wrote:
>
>> As George notes above, a recent study (by Calvo) shows that the skulls of
>> _Nemegtosaurus_ and _Quaesitosaurus_ are much less like diplodcoids than
>> reconstructed, and are actually very similar to _Brachiosaurus_!  
>> 
>> Contra my previous thoughts on the subject (i.e., that "nemegtosaurids" were
>> diplodocoids), I find the evidence for _Nemegtosaurus_ and _Quaesitosaurus_
>> within a titanosauroid-brachiosaurid clade very compelling
>
>I wonder then if _Antarctosaurus_, which has also been 
>reconstructed with a very diplodocoid-like skull, might be a 
>titanosauroid after all.

 From what I've heard, that is the consensus among Argentine sauropod
workers.  However, the diplodocoid-ness of the skull is probably overdone,
much as it is in the "nemegtosaurids".

Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
Vertebrate Paleontologist     Webpage: http://www.geol.umd.edu
Dept. of Geology              Email:th81@umail.umd.edu
University of Maryland        Phone:301-405-4084
College Park, MD  20742       Fax:  301-314-9661

"To trace that life in its manifold changes through past ages to the present
is a ... difficult task, but one from which modern science does not shrink.
In this wide field, every earnest effort will meet with some degree of
success; every year will add new and important facts; and every generation
will bring to light some law, in accordance with which ancient life has been
changed into life as we see it around us to-day."
        --O.C. Marsh, Vice Presidential Address, AAAS, August 30, 1877