A Great Day for Goofy Sauropods
1:00 pm
The sauropod news is coming in fast and furious today, but at the moment I only have time for the briefest of comments.
Mike Taylor and Darren Naish have described a new genus and species of sauropod, Xenoposeidon proneneukos (ZEE-no-puh-SYE-d’n pro-nen-YOO-koss), “the forward-sloping, strange earth-shaker”, based on a single bizarre vertebra from East Sussex, England. Darren and Mike have it covered on Tetrapod Zoology and at SV-POW!, the paper is available to download here, along with supplemental information, and spiffy introduction to the fellow here.
Also in the news, a team of scientists led by Paul Sereno have described the absolutely bizarre cranial anatomy and possible feeding habits of the rebbachisaurid sauropod Nigersaurus taqueti. The paper is freely accessible through PLOS-ONE, a Nigersaurus homepage is here, the press release is here, and the story is currently covered at A Blog Around the Clock and Laelaps. I’m looking forward to reading more about this one.
Check out Laelaps for more details about these stories (and a whole slew of sauropod posts today).
Thanks for the awesome coverage! Yes, truly, it’s a great day if you’re into weird sauropods.
You can see some cool Nigersaurus photos here: http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/2007-12/bizarre-dinosaurs/nigersaurus.html
The Nigersaurus will be on display at National Geographic at 17th and M Sts. in DC until March 19. It’s free.
Thanks for the links! I wasn’t expecting to do a sauropod-only day, but things just came together that way overnight. I don’t know as much about these new announcements as Darren does, but overall there has been no shortage of sauropod news lately.
Just want to add that I’ve got some original (if quickly done) illustrations up on my blog!