BEATEN-UP IRRITATOR

[darren.naish@port.ac.uk]

Regarding the possible synonymy of _Irritator_ and _Angaturama_, Pete 
Buchholz wrote...

> That being said, Angaturama has a sagital crest that goes to the 
> very tip of the snout, and as far as I know, Irritator's sagital 
> crest is all behind its eyes.  The strong possibilty exists that it 
> was incompletely preserved however, as the skull was really damaged, 
> so maybe the crest DID go to the tip of the snout.

> This would all be solved of course, with a transatlantic flight, 
> but.....

I've closely examined the skull of _Irritator_ during its stay at 
Karlsruhe, Germany. It is badly beaten up and it's widely 
acknowledged that several of the details restored in the original 
paper on the skull are incorrect. For example..... oops, can't say:)
I am inclined to think that _Angaturama_ is indeed part of the same 
taxon, but what bothers me is how laterally compressed the _A. limai_ 
snout is - though _Irritator_ is somewhat narrow, and such was stated 
by Martill et al., it is nowhere nearly as narrow as _Angaturama_. 
Indeed, Kellner regarded _Angaturama_ as representative of perhaps 
the most laterally compressed skulls in all of dinosauridom. 

Time will tell I promise.

DARREN NAISH
darren.naish@port.ac.uk