Re: Minimum material to declare a species

[Dinogeorge@aol.com]

In a message dated 97-08-28 03:08:37 EDT, dhoffmaster@adrian.adrian.edu
writes:

<< Several posts (Apatosaurus heads and T. rex finds) have caused me to
wonder if
 there is some minimum amount of material necessary before a dinosaur species
 can be described?  Or does it fall to the individual researcher to determine
 what constitutes "enough?" >>

Absolutely. It's always up to the individual researcher. Some dinosaurs have
been described from a single tooth, others from a single bone. Of course,
there's no guarantee that these species will stand the test of time, but some
do. For example, _Troodon formosus_ is based on a single tooth described in
1856, and it's regarded as a valid species (and is even a senior synonym of
several other dinosaur species, one of which is also based solely on a single
tooth--from a different place in the jaw).