RE: Rugops and Spinostropheus in USA Today

[Mark Van Tomme <markvantomme@yahoo.com>]

 From: Mike Taylor [mailto:mike@indexdata.com]
>
> Interesting.  According to this article, someone
called Thomas Holtz
> Jr. says ``dinosaur scientists and geologists will
be interested in
> what the fossils show about how the ancient
continents split and how
> the abelisaurids related to one another across
continents.''  What 
I'd
> like to ask Dr. Holtz if I ever met him is, why is
this interpreted 
as
> meaning that SA and Africa were in contact for an
extra 15 million
> years, and not that abelisaurid evolution was pretty
conservative for
> 15 million years?
>
Dr. Holtz never SAID that he bought the idea of the
longer contact, nor 
that
this solves the questions about Gondwanan breakup,
only that folks 
would be
interested in this new information...

I, for one, would happily accept that "conservatism"
in abelisaurids as 
a
perfectly plausible interpretation.


Disregarding abelisaurids,I know of Spinosaurus and
Carcharodontosaurus material being discovered in
northern Brazil,more precisely in the state of
Maranhao,these remains are Cenomanian in age,thus a
little older than the Albian remains from Niger.Some
say it could had existed archipelagos connecting SA
and Africa during that time by wich faunal
interchanges may had occurred.This is only a plausible
theory to try to explain the faunal similarities
between SA and Africa at that time.Geological studies
suggest the separation of the two continents was
already effective at the Cenomanian,at least at that
part of the continent.

Mark


        
                
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