First reference to Gastonia

[Raptor RKC <RaptorRKC@aol.com>]

To all:

I suppose my lone contribution to dinosaur science thusfar is my location of
the oldest known reference to the generic name _Gastonia_.  I haven't given
any detailed information about this reference until now.

Here you go: 

Bakker, Robert T.  "Unearthing the Jurassic."  In: _Science Year 1995_, pages
76-89. Chicago, London, Sydney, Toronto: World Book Inc., 1994.  

Science Year is an annual supplement to the World Book encyclopedia set,
occasionally featuring dinosaur-related articles.  This article is about,
well, the animals that lived during the Jurassic, but I suppose Bakker
couldn't resist sneaking in some of his new names.  He mentions the new
_Apatosaurus_ (= Brontosaurus of his usage, of course), but doesn't note a
species name (which we now know is _A. yahnahpin_).  Also mentioned are two
non-Jurassic dinosaurs: 

"In 1992, Robert Gaston, volunteering for the Price museum, discovered two
creatures that lived just after the end of the Jurassic.  One was the predator
_Utahraptor_ ("Utah's raptor), a 6-meter (20-foot) killer with sharp-edged
claws on its forelimbs and feet.  The other was the herbivore _Gastonia_, a
one-ton, bony dino-tank."  

Something I found rather curious was the caption to Pat Redman's Como Bluff
painting (which can be found in Psihoyo's _Hunting Dinosaurs), which includes
at least one name which I know I haven't heard of anywhere else:

"A _Brontosaurus_ towers over other prehistoric animals in a 1994 depiction of
life in the Jurassic Period.  A pterodactyl called _Wyomingopteryx_ flies
above the water, as the rat-tailed mammal _Zofiabataar_ and the ring-tailed
_Foxraptor_ climb on low branches.  Underwater swim a _Uluops_ turtle and a
small laosaur about to fall prey to a lungfish called _Ceratodus robustus_.
On the shore, a hungry _Goniopholis_ crocodile is also on the attack."

I have never seen "Wyomingopteryx" before or since.  (Get out your pterosaur
genus lists and add "Wyomingopteryx" Bakker, 1994 [nomen nudum] as Pterosauria
incertae sedis.) It's restored as a pterodactyloid, by the way.

Whether all of the other genera mentioned in the caption have been described
is beyond me.  BTW, what the heck is a "laosaur"?  (I have a feeling he's
referring to _Drinker_.)  

Science Year has also had a couple other rare Bakker articles.  Here are the
refs: 

Bakker, Robert T.  1995.  "Pterodactyls -- Flying Marvels of the Mesozoic."
In: _Science Year 1996_, pages 60-73. Chicago, London, Sydney, Toronto: World
Book Inc., 1995.   (This one has a nice color frontispiece by Pat Redman.)  

Stille, Darlene R.  1991.  "Dinosaur Scientist: An Interview with Robert
Bakker."  In: _Science Year 1992_, pages 102-119. Chicago, London, Sydney,
Toronto: World Book Inc., 1991.  

If any of you want copies of these refs, just ask me off-list.  

If Science Year yields any more articles, I'll fill you guys in.

"Bah-chomp, bah-chooey-chooey-chomp." 

Rachel Clark