Pliny and Plateosaurus

[Tim Williams <twilliams_alpha@hotmail.com>]

Mickey Mortimer wrote:

> Yates should be getting Plateosauravus out as a valid genus soon
> (http://dml.cmnh.org/2003Jul/msg00121.html), and there are a couple other
> prior nomina dubia to be redescribed in the future as well.

How ironic that _Plateosauravus_ might be resurrected as a valid genus, 
while _Plateosaurus_ itself is looking like it might be a _nomen dubium_, 
based on the current type material for _P. engelhardti_.  (Of course, to 
retain the name _Plateosaurus_ we could just pull a switcheroo on the type 
material and designate a neotype that is diagnostic - like what was done 
with _Iguanodon_ and _Coelophysis_.  _Plateosaurus_ is a very familiar name 
after all; I'd hate to see it go.)


David Marjanovic wrote:

> > and I believe the relation was grandparent/grandchild, not
> > parent/child; however I have not at my fingertips THAT documentation.
>
> Weren't they uncle and nephew?

Yep, Pliny the Younger was the son of the sister of Pliny the Elder.  Pliny 
the Elder was not only a naturalist, but a Roman senator and the commander 
of the imperial fleet at Misenum, on the Bay of Naples.  He died in the 
eruption of Mount Vesuvius, apparently of asphyxiation, in 79 A.D..  His 
nephew (Pliny the Younger) survived the catastrophe, and provided an 
eye-witness account of the eruption to the historian Tacitus.


Tim