cuban camarasauromorph dinosaur

["Ing. Yasmani Ceballos Izquierdo" <yceballos@uci.cu>]

Dear friends, 
Late Jurassic vertebrates from Viñales (Pinar del Río, western Cuba) are known 
since they were first mentioned by Carlos de la Torre y Huerta as early as 
1909. However, the first report of the presence of fossil remains of dinosaurs 
in Cuba was a thesis of Alfredo de la Torre y Callejas in 1949, based on a 
45-centimeter long bone of a sauropod dinosaur, considered by him as a 
Diplodocus or Brontosaurus humerus. 

The fossil bone, originally collected near the Valley of Viñales by Carlos de 
la Torre in one of many trips to the area, is currently missing. So to verify 
the identification there is only one old photograph and a very general 
description in the thesis published by De la Torre y Callejas (1949) (pdf at: 
www.redciencia.cu/cdorigen/arca/paper/dinotorre.pdf). This evidence was more 
recently examined by renowned dinosaur specialist Dr. Leonardo Salgado, 
paleontologist at the University of Comahue, Argentina. According to Salgado's 
opinion (cited in Gasparini and Ituralde-Vinent, 2006) the bone closely 
resembles one of the elements (a tarso-metatarsus) of the of a camarasauromorph 
dinosaur (see the second image at 
http://www.redciencia.cu/cdorigen/arca/dino.htm). 

In 2011, Dr. Manuel Iturralde visited the USNM institution and while he 
observed one camarasaurus skeleton, he detected that the Carlos de la Torre's 
bone belonged to a camarasauromorph hand, not leg. Any of you can offer me more 
information on the camarasaurian tarso-metatarsus, or your opinion about the 
Cuban specimen (you can see the photo in the pdf here: 
www.redciencia.cu/cdorigen/arca/paper/dinotorre.pdf). 

Thanks for help, 
Y. Ceballos Izquierdo 

10mo. ANIVERSARIO DE LA CREACION DE LA UNIVERSIDAD DE LAS CIENCIAS 
INFORMATICAS...
CONECTADOS AL FUTURO, CONECTADOS A LA REVOLUCION

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