Croc-Snouted Lizards: A Mystery in Gadoufaoua

Occassionally an author will suggest that recovery of a specimen is representative of a new species, and this is generally true. The problem with this type of nomenclatural act is that when it is required on the part of the author to “downgrade” a known taxon to do it. One can find a variety of reasons to dispense with reasonable certainty as to the identity of the new material and how it can apply to the old. When the old gets a name, and the new one seems like it should be named, conventionally one refers the new material to the old.

Trickier still is when the original material is very much incomplete, scrappier, or otherwise limited in how much information can be garnered from it. Generally, this is a matter of perspective.

One of the most recent dinosaurian culprits of this is Suchomimus tenerensis [1]

Spinosaurus Spines – WP#3

The vertebral series of Spinosaurus aegyptiacus, IPHG 1912 VIII 19, modified from the original plates of von Stromer’s description of the material. I have grayed-out the regions of the vertebrae that are not preserved, under the scheme shown below, including virtually all of the sacrum, although I have not treated the “extraneous” caudal.