Re: Details on Santanaraptor

[Dinogeorge@aol.com]

In a message dated 9/8/00 5:09:22 AM EST, mickey_mortimer@email.msn.com 
writes:

<< Kellner places this species in the Coelurosauria based on the triangular
 obturator process and suggests it may be a maniraptoriform based on Sereno's
 (1999) character "obturator notch U-shaped with slightly divergent sides",
 which I find highly variable. >>

Let me call your attention to the following article:

David M. Martill, Eberhard Frey, Hans-Dieter Sues & Arthur R. I. Cruickshank, 
2000. "Skeletal remains of a small theropod dinosaur with associated soft 
structures from the Lower Cretaceous Santana Formation of northeastern 
Brazil," Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 37: 891-900.

The authors describe the pelvic region of a previously undescribed small 
theropod, unnamed, tentatively referred to Compsognathidae. The interesting 
part is the marked left-right asymmetry of the bones: the left pubis has an 
obturator notch, the right pubis has an obturator foramen; the right ischium 
has an obturator notch, the left ischium has an obturator foramen (among 
other things). A portion of the lower intestine is preserved and it is 
asymmetrically situated within the pelvic bones. The preservation of the 
specimen is the usual "Santana excellent," and there can be no doubt of this 
asymmetry.