RE: Dinosaur Genera List corrections #98

[Adam Yates <A.Yates@zoo.latrobe.edu.au>]

-----Original Message-----
From: Allan Edels
To: dinosaur@usc.edu
Sent: 11/6/98 5:59 AM
Subject: Re: Dinosaur Genera List corrections #98

    Bakker had a cast of the skull and the left lower jaw with him at
DinoFest 1998.  I was there when he first showed the skull to Jack
McIntosh
and Dong Zhiming.  (In fact, I was holding the jaw for him while he was
showing the braincase to Jack).

    Jack McIntosh's INITIAL view was that the braincase was
_significantly_
different than _Apatosaurus_.  Bakker's initial idea was to resurrect
_Brontosaurus_ based on this reconstructed skull  (due to be so much
different than _Apatosaurus_).

    One cautionary note, the skull was reconstructed using a wax casting
of
the original, which was then stretched to what was considered the proper
shape.

        Allan Edels

----------------------------------

One question I have about this Apatosaurus braincase stuff is "How can a
braincase of A. excelsus help to distinguish the species from Apatosaurus if
the previously known cranial material comes from A. louisae and not the type
species of the genus (A. ajax)?"
I would have thought that demonstrating a diffence between A. louisae and A.
excelsus would be evidence for removing A. louisae from Apatosaurus, given
that it differs postcranially from the other two as well.  Pity I won't be
able to see the paper for months.

cheers
Adam Yates