Dinosaur Genera List corrections #92

[Dinogeorge@aol.com]

Today's issue of Nature adds two names to the Dinosaur Genera List, #826 and
#827. The first of these is the celebrated feathered dinosaur _Caudipteryx_,
the second the Morrison ankylosaurid _Gargoyleosaurus_:

Caudipteryx Ji Q., Currie, Norell & Ji S., 1998
Gargoyleosaurus Carpenter, Miles & Cloward, 1998

The former first appeared in print in the July National Geographic, but before
I could get a copy of the issue, the Nature article appeared. I haven't seen
the issue itself, which features a Mike Skrepnick painting of _Caudipteryx_ on
the cover, but enough information can be gleaned from the Nature web site to
provide decent but not quite complete citations for these articles:

Ji Q., Currie, P. J., Norell, M. A. & Ji S., 1998. "Two feathered dinosaurs
from northeastern China," Nature 393(6687): 753-? [June 25, 1998].

Carpenter, K., Miles, C. & Cloward, K., 1998. "Skull of a Jurassic ankylosaur
(Dinosauria)," Nature 393(6687): 782-784? [letter; June 25, 1998].

Note also Kevin Padian's article on the dinosaur-bird connection in the News
and Views section:

Padian, K., 1998. "When is a bird not a bird?" Nature 393(6687): 729-730 [
News and Views; June 25, 1998].

Type species are _Caudipteryx zoui_ Ji Q., Currie, Norell & Ji S., 1998 and
_Gargoyleosaurus parkpini_ Carpenter, Miles & Cloward, 1998. The second
feathered dinosaur in the _Caudipteryx_ article is the already-described
_Protarchaeopteryx robusta_ (whose generic name is often misspelled
_Protoarchaeopteryx_ in news releases about the feathered dinosaurs).

Although I haven't yet seen the article, I am going ahead and correcting the
author and status (no longer a nomen nudum) of _Sonorasaurus_ to

Sonorasaurus Ratkevich, 1998

The only information I have concerning the formal description is from a public
e-mail from dinosaur list member Bill Parker, which I reproduce here, slightly
edited:

"A description of a newly discovered sauropod of the Middle Cretaceous of
southeastern Arizona has been published in the Journal of the Arizona-Nevada
Academy of Science. (Vol. 31(1) 1998).  According to the author the specimen
is a brachiosaurid and is a new taxon within the Brachiosauridae.
_Sonorasaurus thompsoni_ is given an age of Albian +/- 97Ma.  The specimen
consists mainly of limb and pelvic elements associated with caudal and dorsal
vertebrae, ribs, and
gastroliths...a middle Cretaceous brachiosaurid!

Bill Parker"

The author's name was provided subsequently.