POEKILOPLEURON

[darren.naish@port.ac.uk]

Stephan (note spelling Jaime) Pickering wrote...

>  There is every reason to believe that the Eudes-               
> Deslongchamps 1838 taxon was a specimen of                 
> Megalosaurus bucklandii -- for those
> interested, I can post in this forum an abbreviated analysis of the
> figured specimens with comparisons to other taxa -- but, in the
> absense of the original hypodigm, such a conclusion would be a guess.

A cast of the original specimen has been discovered by 
Ronan Allain and Dan Chure and a description is in press 
for _Palaeontology_. This includes the gastralia, but am not 
sure about the rest of the material figured by Eudes-
Deslongchamps. Dan has been using the name 
_Poekilopleuron_ for the specimen in various of his papers, 
indicating that he thinks it is distinct from other taxa, and 
Ronan certainly thinks it's distinct. The new French 
specimen (which includes extensive skull material to say 
the least) is in press for JVP. This will settle most doubts.

A redescription of all British megalosaur material (and 
_Eustreptospondylus_) is in the works following the phd 
work of Laura nee Canning (sorry, don't recall her married 
name) but will be some time before it's out (Ronan also 
looked at several of the same taxa). I have informed the 
people concerned of Mr Pickering's writings on 
megalosaurs.

Darren Naish
School of Earth & Environmental Sciences
University of Portsmouth
Burnaby Building
Burnaby Road                           email: 
darren.naish@port.ac.uk
Portsmouth UK                          tel: 023 92846045                   
PO1 3QL                                www.palaeobiology.co.uk