From: mike@miketaylor.org.uk (Mike Taylor) Reply-To: mike@miketaylor.org.uk To: twilliams_alpha@hotmail.com CC: dinosaur@usc.edu Subject: Re: New sauropod paper Date: Wed, 14 Sep 2005 00:17:32 +0100 (BST)
> Date: Tue, 13 Sep 2005 17:14:38 -0500 > From: Tim Williams <twilliams_alpha@hotmail.com> > > My apologies if this has already been posted. I haven't seen or > read this paper yet. I find the abstract tantalizing, given that it > suggests the coexistence of two sauropods in Brazil, one of which is > related to _Rayososaurus_ (a rebbachisaurid), whereas the other is > related to _"Rebbachisaurus" tamesnensis_. AFAIK, the latter is a > more primitive grade of sauropod, akin to _Jobaria_.
The Sereno et al. 1999 paper that raised both _Jobaria_ and the much more interesting _Nigersaurus_ strongly implies that _Jobaria_ IS the "_Rebbachisaurus_" _tamesnensis_ material, merely renamed. If that's so, then it should of course have been called _Jobaria tamesnensis_ rather than inventing the new species name _tiguidensis_.
Here's what it says on p. 1342:
The sauropod from the Tiouraren Formation, Jobaria tiguidensis gen. nov. sp. nov. (5), is the most abundant terrestrial vertebrate in the formation; no remains of any other large-bodied herbivore were recovered.
And note 5, on p. 1345, says:
Fragmentary sauropod remains from the Tiouraren Formation were initially described as a new species, Rebbachisaurus tamesnensis [A. F. de Lapparent, Mem. Soc. Geol. France 88A, 1 (1960)]. Type material, however, was not designated, and no diagnostic features were mentioned (3). Lapparent considered the Tiouraren sauropod to be a camarasaurid; elsewhere it has been referred to the Diplodocidae [J. S. McIntosh, in The Dinosauria (Univ. of California Press, Berkeley, CA, 1990), pp. 345Â 401]. Etymology: Jobar, Jobar ( Tamacheck); ia, pertaining to (Greek); tiguidi, Tiguidi ( Tamacheck); ensis, from (Latin). Named after the mythical creature "Jobar," to whom local Touregs had attributed the exposed bones, and after the Falaise de Tiguidi, a cliff near the base of which lie the horizons yielding all of its remains.
I don't know what to make of this. The _implication_ is that _J. tiguidensis_ was raised on the "_R._" _tamesnensis_ materal, but it's not at all explicit.