RE: Anyone know what this is?

[Michael Mortimer <mickey_mortimer111@msn.com>]

Graeme Worth

> A friend asked me to post this link to a photo of what is supposedly from a 
> Spinosaurus. Unfortunately there doesn't appear to be any size comparison 
> available.
> http://www.paleolinks.com/special/TK604.jpg
> Any comments would be most welcome.

The first manual digit seems much too slender for a basal tetanurine, and 
the phalanges of digit II must be wrong as virtually all theropods have II-2 
longer than II-1.  Also, the concave proxomodorsal ungual surfaces are more 
like maniraptoriforms than more basal theropods.  The short phalanx III-3 is 
like non-maniraptoriforms and oviraptorosaurs.  Russell (1996) described 
large caenagnathid-like unguals from the Continental Intercaliare of 
Morocco.  Perhaps this manus is from the same kind of theropod, or involves 
parts of it at least.  Not that it's necessarily caenagnathid, with the 
short metacarpal I and massive metacarpal III.

Mickey Mortimer