New Sauropod

[Mickey Rowe <rowe@psych.ucsb.edu>]

This just in from Josh Smith:

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Date: Thu, 06 May 2004 09:13:01 -0500
To: dinosaur@usc.edu
From: Josh Smith <smithjb@wustl.edu>
Subject: New Sauropod

Jerald D. Harris and Peter Dodson

A new diplodocoid sauropod dinosaur from the Upper Jurassic Morrison 
Formation of Montana, USA

  Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 49 (2), 2004: 197-210
A partial skeleton of a new sauropod dinosaur from the Upper Jurassic 
Morrison Formation (?Tithonian) of Montana is described. Suuwassea emilieae 
gen. et sp. nov. is diagnosed by numerous cranial, axial, and appendicular 
autapomorphies. The holotype consists of a premaxilla, partial maxilla, 
quadrate, braincase with partial skull roof, several partial and complete 
cranial and middle cervical, cranial dorsal, and caudal vertebrae, ribs, 
complete scapulocoracoid, humerus, partial tibia, complete fibula, 
calcaneus, and partial pes. It displays numerous synapomorphies of the 
Diplodocoidea, including characters of both the Diplodocidae (Apatosaurus + 
(Diplodocus + Barosaurus)) and Dicraeosauridae (Dicraeosaurus + 
Amargasaurus). Preliminary phylogenetic analysis indicates that Suuwassea 
is a diplodocoid more derived than rebbachisaurids but in a trichotomy with 
both the Diplodocidae and Dicraeosauridae. Suuwassea represents the first 
well-supported, North American, non-diplodocid representative of the 
Diplodocoidea and provides new insight into the origins of both the 
Diplodocidae and Dicraeosauridae.



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Josh Smith
Assistant Professor of Geology
Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences
Washington University
1 Brookings Drive
Campus Box 1169
108 Wilson Hall
St. Louis, MO  63130-4899
Office: 314.935.7033
FAX: 314.935.7361
smithjb@wustl.edu
http://epsc.wustl.edu 
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