Irish plesiosaur bone
A plesiosaur bone has been discovered in Ireland, reported the BBC in October. The single bone represents a large plesiosaur vertebral centrum, but cannot be identified in any detail. It was discovered by Park Ranger Paul Bennet in the Colin River in Colin Glen, on the West edge of Belfast, Northern Ireland. Marine reptile fossils are exceedingly rare in Ireland and this find represents one of only a handful discovered to date.
More here:
‘Sea Monsters’ movie released
The newest film offering from National Geographic opened to 78 IMAX theaters across the United States, the largest ever opening for an IMAX movie. ‘Sea Monsters’ is set in the Late Cretaceous Western Interior Sea, and follows the journey of a growing Dolichorhynchops. The official website is now complete and up and running.
Long-necked plesiosaur discovered in northern Germany
A four-metre-long plesiosaur skeleton has been discovered by in Northern Germany by an amateur palaeontologist. 19-year-old fossil collector Sönke Simonsen discovered the specimen in June whilst looking for fossils with his dad in a quarry at Tongrube in Kreis Hoxter, near Bielefeld. “The first thing I discovered was a caudal-vertebra” said Simonsen, “but then I realised that to the left and also to the right direction there were more and more vertebrae.” The specimen is almost complete, but unfortunately the head has not yet been found. The fossil hunters contacted the local LWL-Museum für Naturkunde, Münster, who have initiated an excavation to collect the specimen. The plesiosaur has elongated cervical vertebrae and a long neck, typical elasmosaurid features.
Some neck vertebrae of the new german plesiosaur (photo from here)
The specimen is especially important for two reasons. Firstly, plesiosaurs are very rare in the north of Germany, and this represents the first significantly complete specimen of a long-necked plesiosaur from this region. Secondly, the specimen was discovered in rocks that are Pliensbachian (Lower Jurassic) in age. This period in plesiosaur history is very poorly known, so the new specimen may provide rare information on the evolution of plesiosaurs during the Jurassic.
Elasmosaurid skeleton excavated in Alberta
A giant plesiosaur has been discovered and excavated from the Late Cretaceous Bearpaw Shale of Drumheller, southern Alberta, Canada. According to the press release the fossil remains were found in an ammolite mine by staff from Korite International (‘Ammolite’ is a gemstone, not to be confused with the prehistoric cephalopod ‘ammonite’,).
The team from the Royal Tyrell Museum excavating the specimen -the fossil is covered in a layer of white supporting burlap soaked in plaster, to encase and protect it on its journey to the museum. Image: ‘Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology/Alberta Tourism, Parks, Recreation and Culture’ (used with permission).
After spotting a neck vertebra, work in the mine was halted to investigate the find. The Royal Tyrell Museum mounted an expedition led by Dr. Don Henderson, to recover the plesiosaur, which has since been identified as an elasmosaurid and possibly represents the largest marine reptile ever unearthed in Alberta. 9000 tonnes of rock, still containing the bones, were excavated during the three-week dig, but the exact contents will only be revealed from careful preparation of the specimen, over the next couple of years.
Elasmosaurus to feature in new exhibit (PART 2)
A special exhibition entitled “Collecting Oklahoma” opened in the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History, on the 16th of June 2007. The exhibition features an original painting of an Elasmosaurus by artist Debby Cotter Kaspari. The exhibit was curated by Rick Lupia, the project coordinator was Deborah Kay, and Tom Luczycki was the exhibits director. I discussed in a previous news article (see Part 1) the initial stages of the design process for this project. Kaspari worked closely with palaeontologist Kyle Davies on the elasmosaur, to make it as accurate as possible. I am now pleased to reveal the final work of art.
Debby ponders over the finished painting – the original piece was produced at half size…
… but was later blown up in a mural to represent a full-size adult Elasmosaurus in the exhibit. Notice the string of elasmosaurid vertebrae in the foreground.
Kaspari attended the grand opening of the event: “It went great!” explains Kaspari pictured here next to the finished Elasmosaurus exhibit, “A wonderful turnout, lots of excitement, and the mural looked really good up there. It’s big, really big. And toothy”
The complete painting by Debby Cotter Kaspari…
…and detail of the head of the Elasmosaurus.
To coincide with the opening of the new exhibit, a specially designed postal cancellation stamp featuring the head of the Elasmosaurus was released by the post office in Norman, Oklahoma. The stamp was also designed by Debby Kaspari, who was on hand at the opening event to autograph her artwork.
I would again like to thank Debby Kaspari for providing information and allowing me to use her photographs and images.
Hive Studios release plesiosaur animations
On Monday the 18th of June, Hive Studios announced the first installment of their animation library featuring some amazing animations of prehistoric animals, including some plesiosaurs.
The plesiosaurs are Cryptoclidus, but it’s also worth checking out the Allosaurus and Othnelia animations too. The animations feature in the ABC Science documentary “CRUDE”, all about crude oil. The documentary, including the plesiosaur animations in Part 1, can be seen here:
Hydrorion – a new plesiosaur from Germany
The most recent issue of the ‘Palaeontology’ (Vol 49, Part 3) features an article by Franziska Grossman on the plesiosauroids from the Jurassic Posidonia Shale in Germany. Grossman describes the skulls of two genera, Seeleyosaurus guilelmiimperatoris (a tongue-twister of a taxon! – formerly Plesiosaurus guilelmiimperatoris) and introduces a new genus Hydrorion brachypterygius (formerly Plesiosaurus brachypterygius). Interestingly, Grossman analyses the holotype of ‘Plesiopterys’, a genus erected by O’Keefe (2004), and identifies it as a juvenile of Seeleyosaurus. Another major consequence of this paper is the removal of these species from Plesiosaurus, a genus which now contains only one valid species: P. dolichodeirus.
Elasmosaurus to feature in new exhibit (PART 1)
Artist Debby Cotter Kaspari has produced an Elasmosaurus painting as part of a special exhibition in the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History entitled “Collecting Oklahoma”, scheduled to open on the 16th of June 2007. The exhibit will present a selection of rare and unique specimens collected around Oklahoma by the museum over the last decade. The painting was produced to be as accurate as possible:
“I worked closely with our paleontologists at the Sam Noble Museum” explains Kaspari.”I’m very happy with the finished painting which will be…presented along with the vertebrae of the elasmosaur.”
The painting will be enlarged to life-size (30 feet by 15 feet) – but even the original painting is half of that. Although only the finished painting will be displayed int the exhibit, this project provides a perfect case study examplifying the process through which palaeoatists restore prehitoric animals. The first stage involves researching the anatomy of the animal – In this case, Kaspari created a scale model of the whole animal, and a full-size model of the skull based on published reconstructions of the bones of an elasmosaurid:
From these models sketches can be made from all possible angles, and these form the basis for the final piece of artwork:
It is also possible to experiment with colour and patterning before commiting a colour scheme to the final painting. Here is an experimental colour scheme for the head:
The finalized painting is now currently under wraps, but it will be featured on this page soon after the official opening of the exhibit in June. So stay tuned for part 2 of this article…
Many thanks to Debby Kaspari for providing information and allowing me to use her photographs and images.
More information:
http://www.snomnh.ou.edu/exhibits/spex.html - the official webpage of the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History
http://drawingthemotmot.wordpress.com/ -Debby Kaspari’s weblog and website:
Two new species of polycotylid plesiosaurs
The second paper in the two-part report on by Albright et al. on plesiosaurs from the Upper Cretaceous Tropic Shale of southern Utah (Journal of Vertebrate Palaeontology, Volume 27(1) p. 41-58), introduces two new genera and species of polycotylid plesiosaur and contributes to the systematics of polycotylid plesiosaurs. The first new genus and species, Palmula quadratus possesses a unique combination of characters amongst polycotylid plesiosaurs – distinctly polygonal epipodials combined with small overall adult size. Palmula is also the only named representative of a new subfamily proposed by Albright et al, the Palmulainae, a clade diagnosed by polygonal epipodials.
The other new plesiosaur, Eopolycotylus rankini, is an almost complete specimen named after David O. Rankin who discovered the fossil in 2001. “I’ve been fossil hunting since I was 9 years old” explains Rankin, who made his first large pliosaur find at the age of 14. So what is it like to have a plesiosaur named after you? “I’m very excited about it” says Rankin, “Its like having your own little piece of history, and science.” Rankin also assisted the excavation team who excavated Eopolycotylus rankini in 2003. The team from the Museum of Northern Arizona in Flagstaff was headed by Dr David Gillette who is a coauthor of the paper.
E. rankini is a representative of a second new subfamily, the Polycotylinae, which also includes the majority of known polycotylids. As in all other polycotylines the epipodials of Eopolycotylus are broader than long, contrasting with the condition in Palmulines.
More photographs of the Eopolycotylus excavation are available on David Rankin’s website. A Palmula and Eopolycotylus ‘genus page’ will be added to the Plesiosaur Directory in the near future.
N.B. I have this article, and the other JVP plesiosaur articles discussed here, as PDFs which I would be happy to share.
The pectoral and pelvic girdles of Eopolycotylus, in situ, being excavated by a team from the Museum of Northern Arizona (photograph by D.O. Rankin, used with kind permission).
Two new plesiosaur species and new data on _Brachauchenius_
he most recent Journal of Vertebrate Palaeontology (Volume 27(1)) contains three new plesiosaur papers. A short communication by Ben Kear (p. 241-246) clarifies the taxonomy of what has become a very confusing taxon – Eromangasaurus. The confusion originated because two separate researchers (Ben Kear and Sven Sachs) published separate descriptions and names for the same specimen, simultaneously. The officialy settled name of this taxon is Eromangasaurus australis (Sachs, 2005) Kear, 2005
The other two articles from part 1 and part 2 of a review of plesiosaurs from the Upper Cretaceous Tropic Shale of southern Utah by Albright et al.
The first part (p.31-40) describes new material pertaining to Brachauchenius lucasi. Interestingly, I was surprised to see an infamous historical blunder rear its head. In 1957 Tarlo described an unusual pliosaur scapula and introduced the new genus Stretosaurus based on the unique morphology. Despite this interpretation being perpetuated in later papers (Tarlo 1959, 1960), unfortunately, as Tarlo (who changed his name to Halstead) later pointed out (1989), this unique scapula was in fact a perfectly normal pliosaur ilium. it seems this fact is not so well known becasue in their new paper, Albright et al present two possible reconstructions for the partial scapula of Brachauchenius, one based on Liopleurodon, the other based on the muddled ‘Stretosaurus’ ilium (Fig. 1). I’m surprised this error made it through the peer review process.
Fig 1. The two interpretations proposed by Albright et al for the partial scapula of Brachauchenius. ‘A’ is erroneously based in the ilium of ‘Stretosaurus’. From Albright et al (2007).
It is also possible that both interpretations of the pelvic girdle (Fig. 2) given by Albright et al’s are erroneous. Comparison with other specimens of Brachauchenius overlooked by the authors (Fig. 3) and other pliosaurs (Figs. 4, 5) show that the pelvic girdle are always greatly elongated in pliosaurs. Although it is not possible to be certain without observing the specimen first hand, it appears that the orientation of at least some of the elements in (Fig. 2 ) are open to reinterpretaion. Likely, the margin interpreteted as the obturator foramen, is the lateral margin of the pubis. It is also possible that the pubis and coracoid have been muddled.
Fig. 2. The two proposed interpretations of one half of the pelvic girdle of Brachauchenius. From Albright et al. (2007)
Fig 3. Pubis of a specimen of Brachauchenius sp., as figured by Hampe (2005). Anterior towards the top – the orientation is confident because the specimen is articulated. This paper was overlooked by Albright et al (2007)
Fig 4. Pelvic girdle of Liopleurodon, showing the greatly elongated form typical of pliosaurs. from Andrews (1913)
Fig 5. Pelvic girdle of Simoletes, again showing the greatly elongated form typical of pliosaurs. from Andrews (1913)
The second paper in this two-parter (p. 41-58) introduces two new genera and species (Palmula quadratus and Eopolycotylus rankini), plus two new subfamilies within polycotylid plesiosaurs – Palmulainae and Polycotylinae. I may comment on this in the future.
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