Redescription of a Nearly Complete Skull of Plateosaurus from the Late Triassic of Germany

Prieto-Márquez, A., and M. A. Norell. 2011. Redescription of a nearly complete skull of Plateosaurus (Dinosauria: Sauropodomorpha) from the Late Triassic of Trossingen (Germany). American Museum Novitates 3727 :1-58. 
doi:
http://www.bioone.org/doi/abs/10.1206/3727.2

Abstract - The nearly complete, disarticulated skull of AMNH FARB 6810, a specimen of the basal sauropodomorph Plateosaurus collected in 1925 from the Norian (Late Triassic) strata of the Knollenmergel beds of Trossingen (Germany), is redescribed. This study supports referral of AMNH FARB 6810 to P. erlenbergiensis on the basis of the following characters: occipital condyle above level of parasphenoid; basisphenoid with transverse, subvertical lamina extending between basipterygoid processes, with ventrally projecting median process; and peglike process projecting medially from the middle of the palatine. Furthermore, P. longiceps is regarded a junior synonym of P. erlenbergiensis because the type specimen of the latter is diagnostic (displaying the above-noted apomorphies of the braincase and palatine) and, chronologically, P. erlenbergiensis has priority over P. longiceps.

1 comment:

  1. Heinrich Mallison made an excellent point about this paper on the DML-

    "It seems Albert Prieto-Márquez and Mark A. Norell simply AVOID the issue of Moser (2003), they mention that he reduced the material to one species, then move on to address that other studies still recognize two species, one of which is P. longiceps. Because P. erlenbergensis Huene 1905 has precedent ofer P. longiceps Jaekel 1913-1914, the AMNH specimens is P. erlenbergensis.

    So, simply said, they IGNORE the Moser study, because there is "no consensus". They cite is once (according to a sarch for the term "Moser" in the PDF), noting that Moser recognized only one species - that's all.

    However, with the exception of Sereno 2007, there is no study WRITTEN and REVIEWED after the appearance of Moser 2003 that accepts P. longiceps as vaild, at least to my knowledge. Prieto-Márquez and Norell cite Galton and Upchruch 2004 - that's Dinosauria 2nd Edition, quite clearly NOT witten with knowledge of Moser 2003! Moser 2003 is NOT in the reference list!

    The last real study, Yates 2003, accepts P. longiceps and P. erlenbergensis as junior synonyms of P. engelhardti.

    So, in sum, it all stands as it was: Moser says it is all P. engelhardti (plus there is more material, but none of the species he lists are real), and so far nobody has come forward with reason to doubt that."

    Still good to get a description more recent than Galton's though.

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