Re: Aussie ceratopians

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

Mark Summer writes:
  
> If they reported accurately, Protoceratops was in Australia tens of 
> millions of years before previously believed.  I find it hard to 
> believe that this genus, part of a family which shows such explosive
> diversity over a short span, should be stable for longer than the
> space between Protoceratops and Triceratops.

Nope, can't agree with you on this one.  Anatomically _Leptoceratops_ 
is the most primitive known protoceratopsid ("_Archaeoceratops_" 
permitting), but geologically it is among the youngest known 
ceratopsians.  This genus must have remained stable for several 
million years at least.

A _Protoceratops_ from South Australia?  I know of a _Leptoceratops_-
like ulna from Victoria, of late Early Cretaceous age.  (A bit of 
political geography may not go astray: the State of Victoria is 
in _southern_ Australia, to the east of the State of South Autralia.)

Tim Williams