Re: Dinosaur Park Formation Ornithodirans

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

At 05:39 PM 6/13/99 -0400, Grant Harding wrote:
>Greetings earthlings.
>
>So...since not many people have written back regarding any issue of this
list but the whole _Chirostenotes_ thing (which seems to mostly remain up to
personal interpretation),

Actually, it has even more to do with the fact that the specimens are so
fragmentary and rare.  More and more complete specimens of caenagnathids
would really go a LONG way in clearing htings up.

>I will assume that this list of the ornithodirans of the Dinosaur Park
Formation is completely correct.

NEVER assume that.  However, you can assume that it is the best you can do
for now.  (It's the same sort of thing as planetary astronomy: don't assume
stuff is completely correct, because the next probe to the planet in
question could change your information.  Same thing here: the next dig could
reveal a lot more).

>However, I thought that there were some more ankylosaurs discovered there
recently.  And what is the consensus on the supposed _Erlikosaurus_ and
_Avimimus_?

The avimimid material, to my knowledge, has not been published.  The cf.
_Erlikosaurus_
frontal DOES look like a therizinosauroid, but it might be a whole new genus
rather than _Erlikosaurus_, or it could be a different dinosaur group
entirely (a caenagnathid frontal, for instance).

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