Re: CERATOPSIAN/APPALACIAN FAUNA

[Jonathon Woolf <jwoolf@erinet.com>]

GBT wrote:
> 
> While reviewing an article in Miss. Geology (1982) by Ken Carpenter, on
> Cretaceous dinosaur fauna in the Appalacian region (MS and AL), he
> mentions that he found it strange the no ceratopsian remains have as yet
> been found. The only reference I was able to find was a Maryland find in
> 1990 by Kranz. The fossil was a tooth thought to represent juvenile
> tenontosaur. Any one of any ceratopsian finds in Ms and/or Al?

I don't know of any, and I can't find any mention of any in any of my
dino books.  Not even Dodson's THE HORNED DINOSAURS, published just last
year.  Neoceratopsids seem to be exclusively Western North America. 
None in Asia, even though protoceratopsids evolved there.  None in
eastern NA, either, or anywhere in the rest of the world. 
_Tenontosaurus_ is some sort of ornithopod, not a ceratopsid.  

I suspect a lot of the reason has to do with the large seaway that is
thought to have covered what is today the Mississippi Basin for most of
the Cretaceous.  Ceratopsids don't strike me as being very good
swimmers. <g>

-- JSW