RE: New Paper on the Roof

[Tim Williams <twilliams_alpha@hotmail.com>]

Maidment &c do swing the axe far and wide.  _Lexovisaurus_ and _Craterosaurus_ 
are regarded as nomina dubia, along with _Monkonosaurus_ and _Chialingosaurus_ 
(from a previous paper); _Hesperosaurus_ and _Wuerhosaurus_ are sunk into 
_Stegosaurus_; and there is no evidence that _Regnosaurus_ (another nomen 
dubium) is a stegosaur, although it appears to be some kind of thyreophoran.  
No closure yet on _Dravidosaurus_ (plesiosaur?).  One new stegosaur genus 
emerges from all this: _Loricatosaurus_, with _L. priscus_ as its type species 
(originally _Stegosaurus priscus_, and later referred to _Lexovisaurus_.)


Cheers

Tim


>>
>> Interesting...
>>
>> So _Hesperosaurus_ and _Wuerhosaurus_ have been sunk into
>> _Stegosaurus? And looks like _Stegosaurus stenops_ is now
>> supposed to be synonymous with _S. armatus._ So much for
>> _Diracodon_...
>
> That is indeed the authors' assessment. However, one could make the case for
> having separate genera for _Hesp._ and _Wuerho._: however, the authors point
> out the nearly-identical anatomy of these three taxa. In their
> interpretation of the specimens, _Dicracodon_, _S. stenops_, and _S.
> ungulatus_ all fall within the variation of _S. armatus_; because the
> holotype is lost, they consider _S. longispinus_ nomen dubium.
>
>
> Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
> Email: tholtz@umd.edu Phone: 301-405-4084
> Office: Centreville 1216
> Senior Lecturer, Vertebrate Paleontology
> Dept. of Geology, University of Maryland
> http://www.geol.umd.edu/~tholtz/
> Fax: 301-314-9661
>
> Faculty Director, Earth, Life & Time Program, College Park Scholars
> http://www.geol.umd.edu/~jmerck/eltsite/
> Fax: 301-405-0796
>
> Mailing Address: Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
> Department of Geology
> Building 237, Room 1117
> University of Maryland
> College Park, MD 20742 USA
>

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