RE: Sarcosuchus

["Jean-michel BENOIT" <Jean-Michel.BENOIT@gemplus.com>]

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\uc1\pard\plain\deftab360 \f0\fs20\cf0 In the same kind of things, there was an article ( last week? ) about a new ichtyosaur find which they called, IIRC, a swimming dinosaur. Aarghh\par
Jean-Michel\par
\par
-----Original Message-----\par
From: Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. [mailto:tholtz@geol.umd.edu]\par
Sent: vendredi 26 octobre 2001 14:30\par
To: christopher-brochu@uiowa.edu; dinosaur@usc.edu\par
Subject: RE: Sarcosuchus\par
\par
\par
> From: owner-dinosaur@usc.edu [mailto:owner-dinosaur@usc.edu]On Behalf Of\par
> chris brochu\par
>\par
> >> I'm actually rather disappointed in the coverage this is getting, as\par
> >> Sarcosuchus is not a crocodylian at all.  It's probably a\par
> >> pholidosaur, which means it's a "mesosuchian"-grade crocodyliform,\par
> >> but it lies outside Crocodylia.\par
>\par
> >Its name means "imperial flesh _crocodile_"...\par
\par
So _Basilosaurus_ is a member of Squamata? :-)\par
\par
> >Project Exploration's official website for it is "SuperCroc.com"...\par
> >\par
> >One can hardly blame the news media when the _official\par
> expedition website_\par
> >and _official press release_ have things like "world record for\par
> a croc" and\par
> >"hyper giant crocodiles" plastered all over them.\par
>\par
> "croc" could be an abbreviation for "crocodile," "crocodylian/crocodilian"\par
> (since these terms sound identical when spoken, they should be regarded as\par
> the same), "crocodyliform," "crocodylomorph," "Crocodylus," or anything\par
> else beginning with "croc".\par
>\par
> And I DO blame the news media, because I know for a fact that many of us\par
> tried to explain patiently to some of these groups that Sarcosuchus is not\par
> a crocodylian/crocodilian, but a very close relative of them (something\par
> called a "crocodyliform.")  They decided that the public would\par
> simply never\par
> get it - something I also know for a fact is bunk.\par
>\par
\par
To put this into an taxonomically-equivalent situation: nearly everybody on\par
the list would be complaining if the news talked about a (hypothetical!!)\par
newly discovered 15 m wingspan azhdarchid pterosaur as the "largest flying\par
dinosaur".  Similarly, if a newly discovered (hypothetical!!) 3-horned\par
titanothere was discovered, we would (rightfully) complain if the media\par
reported it as a 3-horned rhinoceros.\par
\par
Calling a pholidosaur a crocodilian/crocodylian is analogous to calling a\par
pterosaur a dinosaur or a titanothere a rhino: sure, they are close\par
relatives (okay, maybe less secure in the case of the pterosaur-dinosaur\par
relationship), but they aren't the same things.\par
\par
\tab \tab Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.\par
\tab \tab Vertebrate Paleontologist\par
Department of Geology\tab \tab Director, Earth, Life & Time Program\par
University of Maryland\tab \tab College Park Scholars\par
\tab \tab College Park, MD  20742\par
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~tholtz/tholtz.htm\par
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~jmerck/eltsite\par
Phone:\tab 301-405-4084\tab Email:\tab tholtz@geol.umd.edu\par
Fax (Geol):  301-314-9661\tab Fax (CPS-ELT): 301-405-0796\par
\par
}