camarasaurid gastrolits

[ome <jigruiz@posta.unizar.es>]

> The Early Cretaceous North American camarasaurid is- undescribed 
> camarasaurid (Britt, Stadtman, Scheetz and McIntosh 1997, Kirkland, 
> Lucas and Estep 1998)
> Barremian, Early Cretaceous
> Yellow Cat Member of Cedar Mountain Formation, Utah, US
> Material- five skulls, teeth (50x30x? mm), cervical vertebrae, 
> dorsal vertebrae, pelvis, more than seventy gastroliths
> Description- prominent supraoccipital boss, deep sulcus between 
> basal tubera of basioccipital and basisphenoid, moderately short and 
> thin basipterygoid processes, teeth spatulate with massive lateral 
> ridge, bifid cervical neural spines, thin laminae on dorsal 
> vertebrae, dorsal vertebrae opisthocoelous.
> Comments- Over seventy gastroliths were found in the pelvic region 
> ranging in size and mass from 0.6 cc to 166 cc and 1.7 g to 406 g.. 
> Some were formed of fragile sandstone and siltstone, which aren't 
> consistant with the gastric mill hypothesis.
> References- Sanders and Carpenter, 1998. Gastroliths from a 
> camarasaurid in the Cedar Mountain Formation. JVP 18(3) 74A.

The Sanders and Carpenter´s gastrolits are from the brachiosaurid 
Cedarosaurus, and not from a camarasaurid (Tidwell et al, 1999, page 
22; Sanders et al, 2001, table 12.1).

Cedarosaurus comes from Grand County, Utah. I think it is not the 
same locality as the Britt´s camarasaurid (i. e. Dalton Wells Quarry, 
near Moab, Utah). Anyone has some data?

refs:

Tidwell, Carpenter & Brooks. 1999. New sauropod from the Lower 
Cretaceous of Utah, USA. Oryctos 2, 21-37.

Sanders, Manley & Carpenter. 2001. Gastrolits from the Lower 
Cretaceous sauropod Cedarosaurus weiskopfae. In Tanke & Carpenter 
(Eds.): Mesozoic Vertebrate Life, Indiana Universitiy Press, 166-180.

J. I. Ruiz-Omeñaca