RE: What're Rebbachisaurids? (was - New Nemegtosaurus paper)

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

> From: owner-dinosaur@usc.edu [mailto:owner-dinosaur@usc.edu]On Behalf Of
> Rodlox R
>
> out of curiosity, what're the Rebbachisaurids like?
>
Fun at parties, always ready to pick up the check, and helped old ornithopods 
across the street...

Oh, and anatomically: Nigersaurus is the best known one. Short-necked 
wide-mouthed diplodocoids with a forward facing dental
battery.

> (were they armor-plated like the Titanosaurs?)
>
No evidence of that.

> and, there may not be a solid answer for this, but I'll ask anyway - why
> didn't Brachiosaurids, Dicraeosaurids, and Diplodocoids diversify?

Dicraeosaurids and rebbachiosaurids ARE diplodocoids. But as for why 
brachiosaurids petered out at the end of the Early Cretaceous,
and dicraeosaurids before then, good question.

                Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
        Senior Lecturer, Vertebrate Paleontology
Department of Geology           Director, Earth, Life & Time Program
University of Maryland          College Park Scholars
        Mailing Address:
                Building 237, Room 1117
                College Park, MD  20742

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