Dinosaur Genera List corrections #149

[Dinogeorge@aol.com]

I received the Charonosaurus paper a couple of days ago and can now supply 
the complete citation:

Pascal Godefroit, Shuqin Zan & Liyong Jin, 2000. "Charonosaurus jiayinensis 
n.g., n.sp., a lambeosaurine dinosaur from the Late Maastrichtian of 
northeastern China," Comptes Rendus AcadÃmie des Sciences du Paris, Sciences 
de la Terre et des planÃtes 330: 875â882 (PalÃontologie des VertÃbrÃs).

The holotype specimen is an incomplete skull presently in the collection of 
the Changchun University of Sciences and Technology. Lamentably, almost all 
of the crest is missing, but enough skull bones exist to indicate that the 
shape of the crest was similar to that of the North American genus Parasaurolo
phus. It's a big hadrosaur, around 13 meters long, in Asia second in size 
only to Shantungosaurus. Several large bonebeds of this dinosaur have been 
and are being excavated, all nearly monospecific and evidently river 
accumulations (the bones are disarticulated, jumbled together, and show a 
preferential direction), and from these a nearly complete skeletal 
reconstruction is depicted.

The name comes from Charon, the "boatswain of the Styx River in Greek and 
Roman mythology." The paper does not specifically mention why this personage 
was chosen for the name, but it may have to do with the riverine nature of 
the deposits or with the fact that the type locality is on the right bank of 
the Amur River (Heilongjiang). Type horizon is the Yuliangze Formation. All 
the material is being prepared for further study and publication.

The paper distinguishes Charonosaurus jiayinensis from another lambeosaurine 
species discovered in nearly monospecific bonebeds from the same region, Amuro
saurus riabinini. I had this genus as a nomen nudum in the Dinosaur Genera 
List, but among the references in the bibliography is this one:

Y. L. Bolotsky & S. K. [sic] Kurzanov, 1991. "The hadrosaurs of the Amur 
Region," in: Geology of the Pacific Border: 94â103.

The latter is completely new to me and is cited as including the formal 
description of Amurosaurus. So I have corrected the entry for this genus to 
read

Amurosaurus Bolotsky & Kurzanov, 1991

and it is no longer a nomen nudum. This change also extends to the list of 
Asiatic dinosaur species in Mesozoic Meanderings #3. The shape of the cranial 
crest of Amurosaurus is also unknown; indeed, to this day not a single adult 
Asiatic lambeosaurine skull has been found that preserves a complete cranial 
crest. But the dorsal skull bones of Amurosaurus differ from those of Charonos
aurus and point to the existence of at least two crested lambeosaurine genera 
in the Late Maastrichtian of eastern Asia. If you can supply a copy of the 
1991 Amurosaurus paper by Bolotsky & Kurzanov, I'd like to hear from you.

By courtesy of Tom Holtz, we all now know that the current issue of Nature 
carries the description of a new Triassic auropod genus:

Buffetaut, E., Suteethorn, V., Cuny, G., Tong, H., Le Loeuff, J., Khansubha, 
S. & Jongautchariyakul, S., 2000. "The earliest known sauropod dinosaur," Natu
re 407: 72â74.

The genus and type species are Isanosaurus attavipachi Buffetaut, Suteethorn, 
Cuny, Tong, Le Loeuff, Khansubha & Jongautchariyakul, 2000. Accordingly, we 
add genus #893 to the Dinosaur Genera List:

Isanosaurus Buffetaut, Suteethorn, Cuny, Tong, Le Loeuff, Khansubha & 
Jongautchariyakul, 2000

and the following species to the Asiatic dinosaur table:

Isanosaurus Buffetaut, Suteethorn, Cuny, Tong, Le Loeuff, Khansubha & 
Jongautchariyakul, 2000
    I. attavipachi Buffetaut, Suteethorn, Cuny, Tong, Le Loeuff, Khansubha & 
Jongautchariyakul, 2000â