THE PLESIOSAUR DIRECTORY NEWSLETTER. ISSUE 4
(Sunday 15th July 2007)
Good day all! First off, I have abandoned my former newsletter host (Topica)
altogether. Instead, I have created a Google Group, to which I have added all
members of the original mailing list. We’ll see how it goes…
If you have any comments or recommendations on how I can improve this newsletter,
if you want to recommend a link, image or PDF to feature in a future issue of
the newsletter, if you have any corrections, or if you think you are the first
to find Paddy, please contact me at plesiosauria@gmail.com. Thanks! Adam
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NEWS
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’,). 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.
For an image of the excavation and links to other news reports on this discovery,
see: http://www.plesiosauria.com/news.html#16
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UPDATES
Images of a model of Thalassomedon by Hirokazu Tokugawa added to
http://www.plesiosauria.com/thalassomedon.html
(Used with kind permission of Hirokazu Tokugawa, see his other models at http://www2.neweb.ne.jp/wc/A-fragi)
Of all things, I added a graptolite illustration to my artwork page:
http://www.plesiosauria.com.dinosaurs.html
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PDF-CORNER
This issue’s featured scientific article is on Rhomaleosaurus megacephalus
by Arthur Cruickshank:
http://www.plesiosauria.com/pdf/Cruickshank_1994_megacephalus.pdf
Full reference: Cruickshank. A. R. I. 1994b. Cranial anatomy of the Lower Jurassic
pliosaur Rhomaleosaurus megacephalus (Stutchbury) (Reptilia: Plesiosauria).
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Series B, 343, 247-260.
Please note that PDFs featured in ‘PDF-Corner’ will only be available
temporarily.
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FEATURED IMAGE
An external link this time: the imposing three metre long mandible of a pliosaur,
on display in the Oxford Museum, England (Specimen number OUM J.10454).
http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=242640895&size=l
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PICK OF THE WEB
Natural-History-Conservation.com provide a summary of their recent preparation
of a plesiosaur housed in the Somerset Museum, Taunton, discovered in 2004 at
Bridgewater Bay, in Somerset, England. The specimen is also known as the ‘Collard
Plesiosaur’ after Nick Collard who discovered the skeleton.
http://www.natural-history-conservation.com/plesiosaur.htm
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WHERE’S PADDY?
Last issue paddy was hiding on the ‘Palaeobiology’ page. Congratulations
go to Richard Leclercq who was the first person to spot Paddy. Well done!
Keep your eyes peeled though because Paddy has gone missing again! Paddy the
Plesiosaur is a cartoon plesiosaur with a letter ‘P’ on his back
- and he is hiding somewhere on the Plesiosaur Directory Website! Be the first
to find him and get a special mention in next weeks Newsletter! Just email me
at plesiosauria@gmail.com with the subject ‘I found Paddy’ and tell
me what page he is hiding on. Find out more at http://www.plesiosauria.com/paddy.html
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ADS
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