EXCLUSIVE sensation-report

[THammann@t-online.de (T Hammann)]

Message from Thomas Hammann (Germany)


Hi all,

I spoke this morning with Günter VIOHL, director of the Jura-Museum in 
Eichstätt 
where the sensational new theropod is in preparation! Please note that many of 
the following informations are not yet published in any form - they are so far 
EXCLUSIVELY for the list!!!
(Earlier informations from the german-press-agency dpa have been published last 
week only in very short reports in some german newspapers)

If you need special Information I could probably help you. So please contact me 
under the following E-Mail adress <THammann@t-online.de> or phone me: 
(Germany)641-73839. First informations are on the list since yesterday. See: 
"sensation in Germany" and "more infos of sensation" (translation of german 
press-release). I'll also get PICTURES of the specimen this week! Once more 
please excuse my english in the following translation of the interview I've 
made 
this morning:

- Mr. Viohl, how would you describe the find?
"The plate was found near the sites of the Archaeopteryx-findings. It was 
broken 
only at one small place when it was found last year, but there was something 
like a reptile skull to notice. So in the first moments there was not much to 
see. The bones were very broken. Our preparator had to do a hard work to bring 
all the pieces together in the right position. Now you can see the head very 
well and also a part of the neck. The teeth are enormous, they are serrated at 
one side and they look if if their purpose was to kill probably bigger animals. 
The vertrebras of the neck reaches the inner of the plate, which is of a very 
hard substance. We hope that the whole animal is preserved."

- How old is the layer, where the fossil was found?
"It is at least one or two million years older than the layers where the 
specimens of Archaeopteryx were found. So it is older than 150 Million years."

- Can you classify the animal?
"That's very difficult because we can only see the skull so far. The enormous 
teeth are not to compare with the teeth of Archaeopteryx. It is also for sure 
that it is no Compsognathus longipes. It is possible that we'll find feather 
impressions within the next steps of preparation. But so far there are no 
feathers to see. WELLNHOFER thinks that it could be a relative of Compsognathus 
because the first premaxillar tooth of the new theropod is not serrated. I 
think 
it is something completely new. The specimen was not fully grown up, adult 
specimens might reached a length of 2 metres and more. There is nothing 
comparable found in these layers. I wrote a letter to OSTROM to ask him what he 
thinks about the discovery."

- It seems to be a really important find?
As far as I know all the known small and feathered theropods are younger than 
Archaeopteryx. So this new species might be the "missing-link". Of course at 
this stadium of preparation we can not be sure of that at all, but it is a 
possibility."

- The discovery was made by two hobby-paleontologists?
Yes, and they really didn't want to earn any money with that find. I'm happy 
that they are absolute friends of paleontological-science."/


That's it so far.

Grettings,
Thomas Hammann