MORE OF BARYONYX

[darren.naish@port.ac.uk]

Yes, it's now official. 

A few weeks ago myself and Dave Martill visited Steve Hutt (Museum of 
Isle of Wight Geology, Sandown) to look at his theropod material. 
Lots of stuff, including the two individuals of _Neovenator_ and, 
err, lots of other stuff.. (my lips are seals, in the words of Jerry 
Harris).

Among this were phalanges that almost certainly belong to 
_Baryonyx_: yes, _Baryonyx_ postcrania is now known from the Isle of 
Wight (Martill and Hutt reported baryonychid teeth from the Wealden 
of the Isle of Wight in 1995). This skeletal material is not 
newly discovered, but in fact had been sitting in the Sandown 
collections for decades. Only with the publication of the new Milner 
and Charig (1997) monograph did Steve realise the stuff was 
baryonychid. The penultimate phalanx (probably digit I.. or is that 
II;)) he showed me was an awesome bone - very large. Just yesterday 
afternoon I was telling John Sibbick how you could bludgeon someone 
to death with it. 

Needless to say, I was sworn to secrecy about all this, but Steve has 
now gone public and his Isle of Wight baryonychids have been featured 
in the national press. And as they say... there's more.... Hopefully 
Steve'll hurry up and reveal that to the media as well.

Regarding serrations on baryonychid and spinosaurid teeth, an issue I 
commented on way way before Christmas, the numbers I gave should have 
been given as per 5 mm, rather than per mm. I understand that the 
standard measure of serration density in theropod teeth is 
serration number per 5 mm. Pioneered by Farlow, yes?

"Wriggling around like a lizard in a tin"

DARREN NAISH
darren.naish@port.ac.uk