ANCHISAURUS THE SAUROPOD

[darren.naish@port.ac.uk]

Issue 50 of the Palaeontological Association's newsletter 
just arrived and includes the following brief article..

Yates, A. 2002. A re-examination of the phylogenetic 
position of the unusual sauropodomorph, _Anchisaurus_. 
_The Palaeontological Association Newsletter_ 50, 55.

_Anchisaurus_ has long been problematic in phylogenetic 
studies and Adam writes that re-examination of the newly 
prepared _Anchisaurus_ skull at Yale and other material 
demonstrates that numerous characters are shared by 
_Anchisaurus_ and eusauropods, and are not seen in other 
sauropodomorphs. A new analysis recovered 
_Anchisaurus_ as the most basal member of the Sauropoda; 
Prosauropoda (_Riojasaurus_ and Plateosauria) is 
monophyletic after all. Obviously this indicates that 
sauropods evolved giant size and graviportal specialisations 
convergently with large prosauropods. The full paper is 
currently being prepared for publication.

-- 
Darren Naish
School of Earth & Environmental Sciences
University of Portsmouth UK, PO1 3QL

email: darren.naish@port.ac.uk
tel: 023 92846045