Syrian theropod tibia 3D model online

[Mickey Mortimer]

So a while back I was looking into Middle Eastern theropod records, of which very few exist, and came across the lone Syrian specimen- a Late Cretaceous distal tibia.  Unfortunately, it was never figured and its location is now a mystery, but I tracked down a cast at the AMNH.  Again unfortunately, the staff there has the understandable policy of not just taking pictures of specimens for everybody so I was stuck with the rather unhelpful single photo in their online catalog.  But looking through MorphoSource, I found someone uploaded a full 3D model this year.  Because the connection between cast AMNH 8254 and Hooijer's publication is poorly known and the MorphoSource page never mentions any details past it being Theropoda indet., I figured I would inform the community here that this unique specimen is now very easily able to be studied.

https://www.morphosource.org/concern/media/000599253

unnamed averostran (Hooijer, 1968)
Cenomanian-Santonian, Late Cretaceous
Qalamoun hill, Syria
Material- (lost?; cast AMNH 8254) distal tibia (110 mm transversely)
Comments- Found "some time before" 1965, Hooijer (1968) believed this to probably come from Carcharodontosaurus or Erectopus, considering both to be megalosaurids. Carrano et al. (2012) referred it to Tetanurae based on the distal compression (110x55 mm), but an equal amount is present in Elaphrosaurus and some abelisaurs.  Note while no figures exist in the paper, a photo in posterior view of the cast AMNH 8254 is on the AMNH online collections.  No mention of a repository exists in the paper, although Hooijer is listed as working at the Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie, which has since become the Naturalis Biodiversity Center.  Unfortunately, the latter has no record of ever acquiring it (den Ouden, pers. comm. 5-2023), so its location is unknown.  Similarly, the AMNH has no record of the repository of the original, date collected or date when the cast was received (Mehling, pers. comm. 5-2023).
References- Hooijer, 1968. A Cretaceous dinosaur from the Syrian Arab Republic. Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen - Amsterdam, Proceedings Series B. 71, 150-152.
AMNH 2007 online. http://research.amnh.org/paleontology/search.php?action=detail&specimen_id=51261
Carrano, Benson and Sampson, 2012. The phylogeny of Tetanurae (Dinosauria: Theropoda). Journal of Systematic Palaeontology. 10(2), 211-300.

Mickey Mortimer