Newsletter 4
plesio...@gmail.com
(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
plesio...@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 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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