LIAONING COMPSOGNATHIDS

[<darren.naish@port.ac.uk>]

Thanks to Josh for his thoughts on the age of the Liaoning beds. One 
quick comment. Josh wrote...

> To use _Sinosauropteryx_, for example, to
> support a Tithonian age for the basins that contain it because it
> looks like a Tithonian form, is fraught with problems when the sample
> size is in the single digits and all of the specimens come from within
> the rocks in question themselves. 

Furthermore, there are other very _Compsognathus_-like forms from 
indisputable Cretaceous rocks (Owen 1876, Naish 1999, Martill et al. 
2000). And incidentally, as Nick Longrich has discussed here before, 
the type specimen of _Sinosauropteryx prima_ is pretty clearly not that 
similar to _Compsognathus_. HOWEVER, GMV 2124 (the second 
specimen - one with mammal jaws in its gut) is similar to 
_Compsognathus_ (and thus probably a compsognathid).

Hopefully the thing with _Sinosauropteryx_ will eventually get 
published.

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