Newsletter 5
plesio...@gmail.com
(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
plesio...@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 plesio...@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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