Sucho. = Bary.? (was RE: Disney's Dinosaur Trailer)

["Thomas R. Holtz, Jr." <tholtz@geol.umd.edu>]

> From: owner-dinosaur@usc.edu [mailto:owner-dinosaur@usc.edu]On Behalf Of
> Buckaroobwana@aol.com
>
> Does
> anybody know if Suchomimus is a synonym for Baryonx?, they look
> an awful lot
> alike.

Yes, they certain do look alike.

There are enough differences in them to regard them as different taxa;
whether they should be two species in the same genus or two different genera
is a matter of taste.

Since there isn't such a thing as a "gener-ometer" (or "family-ometer" or
"order-ometer" or what have you), deciding where certain names will apply is
essentially arbitrary.  Phylogenetic taxonomy gives a set of rules for HOW
names can be defined, but a choice of WHERE to define them is still left up
to the researcher.

                Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
                Vertebrate Paleontologist
Department of Geology           Director, Earth, Life & Time Program
University of Maryland          College Park Scholars
                College Park, MD  20742
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~tholtz/tholtz.htm
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~jmerck/eltsite
Phone:  301-405-4084    Email:  tholtz@geol.umd.edu
Fax (Geol):  301-314-9661       Fax (CPS-ELT): 301-314-7843