Re: Dinosaurs of Morrison Formation

["Thomas R. Holtz, Jr." <th81@umail.umd.edu>]

At 02:34 PM 5/31/99 +0100, Octavio Mateus wrote:
>        I wish to thanks  Fred Bervoets, Dinogeorge, Jerry Harris and
Thescelosaurus(!!), for their comments. The revised list includes now some
nomen dubia and nomen nuda. There are 24 species of sauropods, 16 species of
theropods and 15 of ornithischians.
>
>Revised list of DINOSAURS OF MORRISON FORMATION
>Some (but not all) nomina dubia and nomina nuda are also cited.
>
>SAUROPODA
>Amphicoelias altus
>Amphicoelias fragillimus

McIntosh sees "no reason not to consider [A. fragillimus] a very large
individual of A. altus". (1998, Modern Geology 23:481-506).

>Apatosaurus ajax
>Apatosaurus excelsus
>Apatosaurus louisae
>"Apatosaurus" minimus
>Apatosaurus yahnahpin
>Barosaurus lentus
>Brachiosaurus altithorax
>Camarasaurus grandis
>Camarasaurus lentus
>Camarasaurus lewisi
>Camarasaurus supremus

Note that Madsen et al. (1995, Bull. Carnegie MNM 31) suggest that C. lentus
might be referrable to C. grandis, but provisionally retain C. lentus for now.

>Diplodocus carnegii
>Diplodocus hayi
>Diplodocus lacustris (nomem dubium)
>Diplodocus longus
>Dystrophaeus viaemalae (nomen dubium?)
>Dystylosaurus edwini
>Eobrontosaurus sp.(nomen nudum?)

Eobrontosaurus IS Apatosaurus yahnahpin: use either the one or the other.
Incidentally, it is not a nomen nudum: its type is the type specimen of A.
yahnahpin.

>Haplocanthosaurus delfsi (including(?) "Morosaurus" agilis?)
>Haplocanthosaurus pricus
>Seismosaurus halli (=S. hallorum).   Who change the name to S. hallorum?
>Supersaurus vivianae
>24 species!!!!!!   ;-)  including nomen dubia and nomen nuda
>
>
>THEROPODA
>Allosaurus fragilis (including Camptosaurus amplus according to Glut, 1997:
252)
>
>Beelemodon sp. (nomen nudum)
>Brontoraptor sp. (nomen nudum)
>Ceratosaurus nasicornis
>Coelurus fragilis (from Morrison Formation according to Carpenter, 1998)
>Edmarka rex
>Elaphrosaurus sp.
>
>Hypsirophus discurus (nomen dubium)
>
>Koparion douglassi
>Marshosaurus bicentesimus
>Saurophaganax maximus (or Allosaurus maximus)
>Ornitholestes hermanni
>Palaeopteryx thomsoni
>Stokesosaurus clevelandi
>Torvosaurus tanneri
>
>Wyomingraptor sp. (nomen nudum)
>16 species including nomen dubia and nomen nuda
>

Also, Allosaurus sp. 2 (Chure's taxon)
The Quarry 9 coelurosaur (Makovicky 1997 JVP 17:755-757, possibly a member
of the therizinosauroid-oviraptorosaur clade: Frankfurt & Chiappe 1999
JVP:101-105).

>ORNITHISCHIA
>?Camptosaurus depressus (not surely assigned to Morrison Formation
according to Norman & Weishampel, 1990: 530)
>Camptosaurus dispar
>
>Diracodon laticeps (=? Stegosaurus; nomem dubium?)
>Drinker nisti
>Dryosaurus altus

Echinodon sp.

>Gargoyleosaurus parkpini

?Iguanodon from Garden of the Gods (from Bakker 1998)

>"Laosaurus" celer (nomen dubium)
>Mymoorepelta maysi
>Nanosaurus agilis (nomem dubium)
>Othnielia rex
>Stegosaurus armatus
>Stegosaurus longispinus
>Stegosaurus stenops
>Tichosteus aequifacies (nomen dubium)
>Tichosteus lucasanus (nomen dubium)
>15 species including nomen dubia 
There would be many, many, many more nomina dubia if you included ALL of
Marsh & Cope's teeth and bone fragment taxa: best to stick with diagnostic
material.

The Morrison Formation is VAST: I can't think of another terrestrial
sedimentary formation of as large an areal extent.  (Nice aspect of having a
rapidly rising mountain range and a big depositional basin for the shed
sediment...).

THE source of recent Morrison works is the two volume set from Modern Geology:

Carpenter, K., D. J. Chure & J. I. Kirkland. (eds.).  1998.  The Upper
Jurassic Morrison Formation: an interdisciplinary study.  Modern Geology 23-24.

In praise of the material from Lourinha, I would like to say that the
preservation of the larger skeletal elements (some of the sauropod
vertebrae) is as good or better than some Morrison localities.  Just over a
year ago (as in a matter of days over a year ago!) I had opportunity to see
some of the specimens (Lourinhanosaurus, the egg material, a sauropod which
I presume was Dinheirosaurus, etc.): very good stuff.  Now, as I wrote to
Octavio earlier today, they have to find the skull of Lourinhanosaurus! :-)

Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
Vertebrate Paleontologist     Webpage: http://www.geol.umd.edu
Dept. of Geology              Email:tholtz@geol.umd.edu
University of Maryland        Phone:301-405-4084
College Park, MD  20742       Fax:  301-314-9661