RE: RAJASAURUS

["Thomas R. Holtz, Jr." <tholtz@geol.umd.edu>]

> From: owner-dinosaur@usc.edu [mailto:owner-dinosaur@usc.edu]On Behalf Of
> darren.naish@port.ac.uk
>
> I haven't seen anyone on-line yet mention _Rajasaurus
> narmadensis_, a new Indian abelisaur described by Sereno,
> Wilson et al.

Actually, Mark Hallett let slip mention of it last week, but I don't think
anyone else caught on...

> There's a story about it (with artwork by Todd
> Marshall) on the NG website. Don't know if the actual paper
> is out yet though - the article says this is due to appear in the
> August edition of _Contributions of the Museum of
> Paleontology of the University of Michigan_.

To my knowledge, the paper isn't out yet.  I'll wait till then to add
anything about the fossils, but...

> The bradyphant is a fictional sauropod for those of you that
> don't know. Jumping the gun here but... if this is a
> preoccupation by a fictional name (a situation that Unwin
> (1992) recognised as a potential problem) does it matter?

To my understanding, fictional names don't count for anything when it comes
to taxonomy.  Heck, if they did, then Gojirasaurus (the name in print (in
Japan) of the pre-mutated foprm of Godzilla in Gojira tai King Gidorah would
win out over Carpenter's _Gojirasaurus_.

                Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
                Vertebrate Paleontologist
Department of Geology           Director, Earth, Life & Time Program
University of Maryland          College Park Scholars
                College Park, MD  20742
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~tholtz/tholtz.htm
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~jmerck/eltsite
Phone:  301-405-4084    Email:  tholtz@geol.umd.edu
Fax (Geol):  301-314-9661       Fax (CPS-ELT): 301-405-0796