JRF HADROSAURS, PENARTH GROUP

[darren.naish@port.ac.uk]

Thanks to Mickey for resubscribing me and a thousand plagues upon all 
computers and their manufacturers for making my life more difficult 
than it already is. WRT my Brazilian post, and specifically to my 
writeup of Kischlat's work on _Hoplitosuchus_ von Huene 1942, I am 
surprised in hindsight that I overlooked the fact that von Huene's 
1938 _Hoplitosaurus_ was a junior synonym - this is even mentioned 
in the abstract. _Hoplitosaurus marshi_, the ankylosaur, had of 
course already been named by Lucas in 1902: something I am quite 
familiar with as I have lately been writing stacks about 
polacanthines for a current project (Pereda-Suberbiola proposed that 
_Hoplitosaurus marshi_ was a species of _Polacanthus_ but Carpenter 
and Kirkland (1998) dispute this). 

Moving to late in the Late Cretaceous, but on the subject of 
ankylosaurs, I recall a JVP abstract by Ken Carpenter that discusses 
the possible validity of _Dyoplosaurus acutosquameus_. Does anybody 
know the year? 

Hadrosaurs. Most texts and figures indicate a length for 
_Prosaurolophus maximus_ of about 8-9 m. However, Reid (1990) 
specifically states that _P. maximus_ grew to 15 m and thus was one 
of the biggest hadrosaurs. Does anyone know if Reid's measurement is 
correct. If so might it relate to exceptionally large specimens?

Also, Lessem and Glut (1993) say that _Brachylophosaurus canadensis_ 
was originally regarded as a species of _Gryposaurus_. However, so 
far as I can tell, the very first description of the type was 
Sternberg's 1953 paper (which I haven't seen). Are Lessem and Glut 
correct? They often are not. 

Finally, I recently got my copy of the long-awaited _Fossils of the 
Rhaetian Penarth Group_, edited by Andrew Swift and David Martill 
(1999). Published by Pal. Ass. (London). The Penarth Group outcrops 
in a rough diagonal line running from SW England to Newark-on-Trent 
etc. in the NW; it's thought to be from the upper Rhaetian of the 
Late Triassic.

Chapter 15 (pp. 223-238) is by Glenn Storrs and covers all the 
Penarth Group tetrapods. These are ichthyosaurs (including some real 
big material and some referred to _Leptonectes_ sp.), indeterminate 
rhomaleosaurid plesiosaurs (am admittedly a little surprised to see 
Storrs using that name), the placodont _Psephoderma_ (scutes and 
teeth), the archaic choristodere _Pachystropheus_, the dinosaurs 
_Camelotia_, _Thecodontosaurus_ and  _?Megalosaurus cambrensis_, bits 
of phytosaur, _Saurodesmus_ (rhynchosaur-like but of indeterminate 
identity) and the cynodonts _Tricuspes?_, _Haramiya_ and 
_Hypsiprimnopsis_ (the latter two both haramyids - on p. 235 it is 
spelled Haramiyidae, on p. 236 it is Haramyidae. I thought the second 
one was the right one but I could be wrong). One curious thing is 
that Benton, Juul, Storrs and Galton's paper 'Anatomy and systematics 
of the prosauropod dinosaur _Thecodontosaurus antiquus_ from the 
Upper Triassic of southwest England' is cited in the references as 
1999 and from JVP 19. Presumably the authors thought it would be 
published in the current ish

DARREN NAISH 
PALAEOBIOLOGY RESEARCH GROUP
School of Earth, Environmental & Physical Sciences
UNIVERSITY OF PORTSMOUTH
Burnaby Building
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