New Papers Revolution

["Jerry D. Harris" <jharris@dixie.edu>]

Just a few for today:

Casal, G., Martínez, R., Luna, M., Sciutto, J.C., and Lamanna, M. 2007. 
Aeolosaurus colhuehuapensis sp. nov. (Sauropoda, Titanosauria) de la 
Formación Bajo Barreal, Cretácico Superior de Argentina. Revista Brasileira 
de Paleontologia 10(1):53-62.

ABSTRACT: A new sauropod, Aeolosaurus colhuehuapensis sp. nov., based on an 
articulated caudal series recovered from an emergent island in Lago Colhué 
Huapi, Chubut Province is described. This series is characterized by neural 
arches located very anteriorly above the centrum and inclined forward; 
well-developed prezygapophyses projecting forward and upward, and wide 
articular facets in the anterior caudals. Aeolosaurus colhuehuapensis sp. 
nov. is unique by the presence of a marked and deep fossa between the 
transverse process and the base of the neural spine in the most anterior 
caudal vertebrae; a slender lamina that connects the base of the prespinal 
lamina with the lower part of the articular facet in the medial part of the 
prezygapophysis, defining a fossa on both sides of the prespinal lamina; 
posterior condyle centrally placed in the entire caudal series. The genus 
Aeolosaurus is recorded in the Campanian-Maastrichtian in Argentina and 
Brazil, and is considered part of a faunal association with hadrosaurids, 
Madtsoiinae, Chelidae, Sudamericidae, and non-tribosphenic Theria in 
floodplain or littoral environments. Its presence in the Upper Member of the 
Bajo Barreal Formation, along with other paleontological records from the 
same locality, and geologic observations allow us to assign preliminarily a 
Campanian-Maastrichtian? age for the upper levels of this stratigraphic unit 
outcropping in the southeast of Lago Colhué Huapi, Chubut Province.


Nesbitt, S.J., Irmis, R.B., and Parker, W.G. 2007. A critical re-evaluation 
of the Late Triassic dinosaur taxa of North America. Journal of Systematic 
Palaeontology 5(2):209-243. doi: 10.1017/S1477201907002040.

ABSTRACT: The North American Triassic dinosaur record has been repeatedly 
cited as one of the most complete early dinosaur assemblages. The discovery 
of Silesaurus from Poland and the recognition that Herrerasaurus and 
Eoraptor may not be theropods have forced a re-evaluation of saurischian and 
theropod synapomorphies. Here, we re-evaluate each purported Triassic 
dinosaur from North America on a specimen by specimen basis using an 
apomorphy-based approach. We attempt to assign specimens to the most 
exclusive taxon possible. Our revision of purported Late Triassic dinosaur 
material from North America indicates that dinosaurs were rarer and less 
diverse in these strata than previously thought. This analysis concludes 
that non-dinosaurian dinosauriforms were present in North America in the 
Late Triassic. Most of the proposed theropod specimens are fragmentary 
and/or indistinguishable from corresponding elements in the only well-known 
Triassic theropod of North America, Coelophysis bauri. No Triassic material 
from North America can be assigned to Sauropodomorpha, because none of the 
purported 'prosauropod' material is diagnostic. Recent discovery of the 
skull and skeleton of Revueltosaurus callenderi from Arizona shows that it 
is a pseudosuchian archosaur, not an ornithischian dinosaur. As a result, 
other purported North American ornithischian teeth cannot be assigned to the 
Ornithischia and therefore, there are no confirmed North American Triassic 
ornithischians. Non-tetanuran theropods and possible basal saurischians are 
the only identifiable dinosaurs recognised in North America until the 
beginning of the Jurassic Period.


Mayr, G., Rana, R.S., Sahni, A., and Smith, T. 2007. Oldest fossil avian 
remains from the Indian subcontinental plate. Current Science 
92(9):1266-1269.

ABSTRACT: We describe the oldest fossil avian remains of the Indian 
subcontinental plate, from the early Eocene of the Vastan Lignite Mine in 
Gujarat, India. Three incomplete coracoids and two scapulae are assigned to 
the new taxon Vastanavis eocaena, gen. et sp. nov. The coracoids resemble 
the corresponding bone of bustards (Otididae), but a reliable assignment is 
not possible without additional bones. Independent of their phylogenetic 
affinities the fossils are of potential biogeographic significance, because 
similar species are unknown from the well-studied Palaeogene avifaunas of 
Europe and North America.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jerry D. Harris
Director of Paleontology
Dixie State College
Science Building
225 South 700 East
St. George, UT  84770   USA
Phone: (435) 652-7758
Fax: (435) 656-4022
E-mail: jharris@dixie.edu
and     dinogami@gmail.com
http://cactus.dixie.edu/jharris/

"Trying to estimate the divergence times
of fungal, algal or prokaryotic groups on
the basis of a partial reptilian fossil and
protein sequences from mice and humans
is like trying to decipher Demotic Egyptian with
the help of an odometer and the Oxford
English Dictionary."
              -- D. Graur & W. Martin (_Trends
                  in Genetics_ 20[2], 2004)