Re: Iowa Dinosaurs ?!?

["Steve Brusatte" <dinoland@lycos.com>]

On Wed, 26 Dec 2001 13:52:44  
 chris brochu wrote:
>The bone fragments mentioned in that book are exactly that - 
>fragments from much larger bones, and they fit comfortably on the tip 
>of one's finger.  They come from nonavian dinosaurs, but that's about 
>all anyone can say.
>

Ugh.  I didn't know they were _that_ fragmentary!  Have they ever been figured 
in a publication (likely not)?  It's amazing that said bones could even be 
assigned to the Dinosauria.  I mean, with fragments that small how can one tell 
them apart from, say, marine reptile bones that infrequently are found in 
western Iowa (yes, Iowa does have an interesting Cretaceous fossil record, but 
from what I know it is poorly studied)?

I have tetrapod bone fragments that size from here in central Illinois and I 
can't tell too much from them.  Of course, I'm no expert.  

Steve

---
***************************************************************
Steve Brusatte-DINO LAND PALEONTOLOGY
SITE: http://www.geocities.com/stegob
ONLINE CLUB: http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/thedinolanddinosaurdigsite
WEBRING: http://www.geocities.com/stegob/dlwr.html
INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE SITE: http://www.geocities.com/stegob/international.html
****************************************************************



--
Click here for your very own create-a-date adventure from MatchMaker
Go to http://ecard.matchmaker.com/dating.html