THE PLESIOSAUR DIRECTORY NEWSLETTER. ISSUE 5
(Sunday 29th July 2007)
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
Long-necked plesiosaur discovered in northern Germany
A four-metre-long plesiosaur skeleton has been discovered 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.
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.
For an image of the excavation and links to other news reports on this discovery,
see: http://www.plesiosauria.com/news.html#17
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UPDATES
I added a fictional story aimed at 8-10 year olds to the monsters section: http://www.plesiosauria.com/rocky_island.html
Images added to Plesiosaurus page:
http://www.plesiosauria.com/dolichodeirus_storrs.jpg
http://www.plesiosauria.com/dolichodeirus_lateral.jpg
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PDF-CORNER
This weeks PDF is the most up-to-date analysis of gastrolith function in plesiosaurs
(N.B. large file - 23MB - so may take some time to download)
http://www.plesiosauria.com/pdf/henderson_2006_gastroliths.pdf
Full reference: Henderson, D. M. 2006. Floating point: a computational study
of buoyancy, equilibrium, and gastroliths ion plesiosaurs. Lethaia, 39, 227-244.
Please note that PDFs featured in ‘PDF-Corner’ will only be available
temporarily.
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FEATURED IMAGE
A reconstruction of the elasmosaurid Morenosaurus by Todd Marshall:
http://www.marshalls-art.com/images/ipaleo/paleopg18/Morenosaurus_final.jpg
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PICK OF THE WEB
A handy online version of Rev. William Buckland’s Bridgewater Treatise
(second edition, 1837), including Section VI on Plesiosaurs:
http://www.geology.19thcenturyscience.org/books/Bridgewater-Treatises/06-1837-Bridgewater-Buckland/text.htm/ch14b.htm
…together with the plates (16-19):
http://www.geology.19thcenturyscience.org/books/Bridgewater-Treatises/06-1837-Bridgewater-Buckland/plates.htm
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WHERE’S PADDY?
Nobody found Paddy since last newsletter, so he has decided to stay put. 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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…or visit the Plesio-Store at http://www.plesiosauria.com/store.html
