Re: Titanosaurus head & neck discovered in Chubut, Argentina

[dis@gj.net]

Shawn Patrick Zack wrote:
> 
>         On a related note, I saw a blurb in the new Discover on a new
> brachiosaur from Arizona, "Sonorasaurus."  There's supposed to be a
> decent amount of it, including a partial skull.  The strange thing was
> the age, 100mya.  Is there much mid-Cretaceous material known from
> Arizona?  Has anyone haerd anything more about this critter?

Yes, I got a chance to study the specimen briefly. The folks at the 
Sonoran Desert Museum are not dinosaur workers. They had published it as 
an ornithopod (in Fossils of Arizona, v 3), had the the partial pelvis 
IDed as a scapula, front legs for back ect. The head is new! I first 
IDed it as a sauropod and told them they should bring the material up to 
Phoenix for DINOFEST last April to show Jack McIntosh (our favorite 
Sauropod Superman). Jack IDed it as a Brachiosaurid with very slender 
legs.
        Rakovitch and Thayer were trying to put it in the Turonian, but 
I really got on there case about how slim the info for dating was. They 
did not want to listen to me. So... I'm glad to see them using a latest 
Albian date instead. WE have tiny sauropod teeth of about that age 
(basal Cenomanian - 80 total taxa)in central Utah that look very much 
like the brachiosaurid Pleurocoelus. Our extensive record of dinosaur 
teeth from microvert sites in the mid.-Cretaceous Utah shows no evidence 
of Sauropods from the mid-Cenomanian-mid Maestrichtian. 
        I certainly hope they can dig the beast up as it is sure to be 
important. It is in a sandstone the has been tilted to nearly vertical. 
Apparently they have other sites in these rocks (Turney Ranch Formation) 
as well.
        We are also running some digs with the Mesa Southwest Museum at 
some new dinosaur sites on the central New Mexico/Arizona border in the 
Turonian (mid-Cretaceous), where there are skeletons (all new beasties) 
and good microvert sites. The southwest is going to be taking its place 
in dino paleo.

Jim K.