EUSTREPTOSPONDYLUS

[darren.naish@port.ac.uk]

On _Eustreptospondylus_, Jaime Headden writes...

> I'm hoping for some new Eustrepto material to come out of England 
> (or even Africa!).

I've got no problem with people wishing for more dinosaur fossils to 
be discovered, but please don't get the impression that the only 
known _Eustreptospondylus_ skeleton is inadequate and that we require 
further specimens to understand this animal. The problem (in this 
case) is not lack of material, but lack of study.

_Eustreptospondylus_ is one of those well known, tremendously poorly 
known dinosaurs. In other words, despite its fame and frequent 
appearance in popular texts, very little has been written about it, 
and almost none of that useful. It still requires a detailed 
monographic description: the most recent descriptive work of it was 
in Alick Walker's 1964 paper, a monograph on _Ornithosuchus_! 
(Admittedly, the _Eustreptospondylus_ braincase has also been briefly 
discussed in some more recent papers on other large theropod taxa) . 
Rumours abound that an English theropod student has looked at _E. 
oxoniensis_ for her review on megalosaurs, but I cannot yet confirm 
this. I kind of wanted to work on _E. oxoniensis_ myself.

DARREN NAISH
darren.naish@port.ac.uk