GRANICONES RESOLVED

[darren.naish@port.ac.uk]

Ok, the Purbeck special volume [or at least some of it] 
obviously IS out and constitutes a special issue of 
_Cretaceous Research_. Ben previously cited two of the 
papers from this issue (Rauhut on theropod teeth [not 
Purbeck] and Barrett and Evans on _Patricosaurus_). Have 
just seen the following...

Barrett, P. M., Clarke, J. B., Brinkman, D. B., Chapman, S. 
D. & Ensom, P. C. 2002. Morphology, histology and 
identification of the 'granicones' from the Purbeck 
Limestone Formation (Lower Cretaceous: Berriasian) of 
Dorset, southern England. _Cret. Res._ 23, 279-295.

This is a fabulously detailed paper that thorougly reviews 
all the possible identifications for the granicones; also loads 
of detail on their structure and histology. And what are the 
granicones? They are the limb (or possibly tail) osteoderms 
of turtles, as demonstrated by similar structures on the limbs 
of the solemydids_Naomichelys_ (from Aptian-Albian 
Texas) and _Solemys_ (from Late K France). The Purbeck 
form - the granicones may be referable to either 
_Helochelydra anglica_ or _'Tretosternon' bakewelli_ - may 
thus be another solemydid. Incidentally Barrett et al. note 
(in the acknowledgements) Angela Milner's offhand 
suggestion that the structures were 'turtle knee-pads'. 

There are surely other papers in that issue of _Cret. Res._ of 
interest to this list but I haven't yet seen them cited. 
Hopefully Milner on _Nuthetes_ and Norman on 
_Iguanodon hoggi_ are in there.

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

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