Suuwassea (was Re: New Sauropod)

[Nick Pharris <npharris@umich.edu>]

Quoting Mickey Rowe <rowe@psych.ucsb.edu> (writing for Josh Smith):

> 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: 197-21

For those who are curious, the genus name _Suuwassea_ is derived from
*suuwassa*, a compound of the Crow (Siouan) words *suu* 'thunder' and *wassa*
'ancient'.  The compound means 'first thunder heard in spring', but it is also
an allusion to the terms _Brontosaurus_ and "thunder lizard".  Cool name,
guys!

The species name, _emilieae_, honors the late Emilie deHellebranth, who funded
the expeditions that recovered the specimen.

At an estimated 14-15 m long, _Suuwassea_ is a relatively small diplodocoid. 
The authors entertain the possibility that the northern part of the Morrison
formation may have been home to a distinct paleoecological community,
characterized by smaller sauropod species.

The paper also names a new higher-level taxon, Flagellicaudata ('whip-tailed
ones').  The authors define Flagellicaudata as "[a] node-based taxon consisting
of the most recent common ancestor of _Dicraeosaurus_ and _Diplodocus_ and all
of its descendants".  However, it is apparent that they actually mean "...the
most recent common ancestor of _Dicraeosaurus_, _Diplodocus_, and
_Suuwassea_...", since they refer to _S._ as a member of Flagellicaudata, even
though their phylogenetic analysis cannot exclude the possibility that _S._ is
the sister to Diplodocidae + Dicraeosauridae.

Nick Pharris
Department of Linguistics
University of Michigan