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RE: At long last: Fruitadens!!
> From: owner-DINOSAUR@usc.edu [mailto:owner-DINOSAUR@usc.edu]
> On Behalf Of Michael Erickson
>
> <rant>
>
> Okay, now I'm mad. As we all know, Bakker described _Drinker_
> in 1990. And _Drinker_ had the approximate weight of a
> domestic hen and was - wait for it - 25 centimeters in total
> body length. This _Friutadens_ is NOT the smallest
> ornithischian known. Butler et al. claiming so is one of the
> most un-ethical things I have ever seen. I don't care what
> you think about Bakker personally, saying that "similarly
> diminutive herbivorous or omnivorous ornithischians are
> unknown" and that they have found he first, is a lie plain
> and simple.
>
> 25 cm is SMALLER than 65-75 cm.
>
> This is all just completely wrong. I'm sorry about this
> folks, but because no one else is going to stick up for
> Bakker and his work, I will.
>
> </rant>
Ummm... From Bakker 1990 (Hunteria 2(7), p. 12):
"A slightly larger Drinker specimen, CPS 197, shows nearly complete
coalescence of the centrum-arch suture, thereby estalishing an adult total
length of slightly less than 2.0 m."
And he estimated the length of the type (earlier that same paragraph) at
within 7% of 1.36 m.
So Drinker is a MUCH larger animal.
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/
Faculty Director, Science & Global Change Program, College Park Scholars
http://www.geol.umd.edu/sgc
Fax: 301-314-9843
Mailing Address: Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
Department of Geology
Building 237, Room 1117
University of Maryland
College Park, MD 20742 USA