Re: Shunosaurus, Tail Clubs, and Ankylosauria

["Jaime A. Headden" <qilongia@yahoo.com>]

Jerry D. Harris wrote:

<Um...I think I might have missed something here!  Last I checked,
there were at least two Jurassic ankylosaurids (_Tianchisaurus_ from
the Middle Jurassic of China [1], which reportedly has a tail club,>

  I was unaware that *Tianchisaurus* had been attributed with a tail
club.

<and _Gargoyleosaurus_ from the Late Jurassic of Wyoming [2]).  Has it
since been shown that the club attributed to _Tianchisaurus_ doesn't
belong there?  If so, and you've got a reference, please let me know!>

  Sorry. Off the top of my head, here. When thinking "club", and I
included the polacanthine "war-spike" at the end of the tail, I was
unaware of any discovery of a Jurassic form with such. Dealing lately
with Early Cretaceous fauna, I seem to have lost sight of the Jurassic
entirely.

<Plus, the latest phylogeny of the Ankylosauria [3] looks something
like this (detail omitted; use mono-spaced font):
 
 N   S   P    a
  \   \   \  /
   \   \   \/
    \   \  /
     \   \/ <- node A
      \  /
       \/
       /
      /
     /
    /
   / >

  Incidentally, where does *Minmi* fit in? It is an ankylosaurid, right?
 
<Since polacanthines are found in the Late Jurassic (_Mymooropelta_
from the Late Jurassic of Colorado [3, 4]), this means that
ankylosaurids do indeed occur in the Jurassic (although, as far as is
currently known, polacanthines don't have tail clubs -- the
ankylosaurian tail club may not have appeared 'til the Cretaceous if
the club attributed to _Tianchisaurus_ isn't ankylosaurian).>

  What shape is the club? I'm up to my ears in theropods and trikes,
so I'm not going anywhere near ankylosaurs at the moment.

<[3] Kirkland, J.I.  1998.  A polacanthine ankylosaur (Ornithischia:
Dinosauria) from the Early Cretaceous (Barremian) of eastern Utah, pp.
271-281 _in_ Lucas, S.G., Kirkland, J.I., and Estep, J.W. (eds.) 
_Lower and Middle Cretaceous Terrestrial Ecosystems_, New Mexico
Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin 14.  (don't worry
folks; it'll be widely available in about 3 weeks!)>

  *Zuniceratops* is published within: do you have the ref for it, even
though it's not available?

  Sorry about the mistake,

==
Jaime A. Headden

Qilong, the website, at:
http://members.tripod.com/~Qilong/qilong.html
---
All comments and criticisms are welcome!

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