The
British Dinosaur Review Seminar was held on the 5th of
November, 2003, at the Newport Quay Arts Centre, IoW,
and was hosted by Dinosaur
Isle and the University of Portsmouth.
The
talks went as follows;
Hugh
Torrens
The historical background
to the British invention of Dinosaurs in 1842.
A nice introduction to the history of dinosaurs, focusing
on how all dinosaur material discovered before 1842 should
be refered to as a To-Be-Dinosaur, as they were up to
that point only large lizards. Showed the first slide
of the Mantell-Piece of the morning.
Mike
Benton (University of Bristol)
Dinosaurs of the British Triassic
- skeletons and footprints.
Early dinosaurs of Britain, looking at some Early Triassic
"dinosaur" footprints that were actually sedimentary
structures and distorted Cheirotherium, as well
as the skeletal remains of Bristol and South Wales. Prof.
Benton also made reference to the lack of Plateosaurus
and small theropods like Halticosaurus, suggesting
half-seriously that the lack of Plateosaurus may
be due to them being too big to fall down the Mendip Fissures.
Paul
Barrett (Natural History Museum, London)
A review of British ornithischian
dinosaurs.
All the ornithischians (except Callovosaurus and
another one I forget), reviewed and described briefly.
Showed the second slide of the Mantell-Piece of the morning.
Dr. Barrett also reminded all present about a certain
host's claims of 6000 Hypsilophodon
in the Hypsi beds.
David
Norman (Cambridge)
Iguanodon
- a focus for palaeobiological research.
David Norman talked about Iguanodon.
Stressing the importance of complete skeletons, Dr. Norman
showed the amount of information that can be gained from
Iguanodon. Also gave
us our third and final slide of the Mantell-Piece of the
morning.
Paul
Upchurch (University College London)
British Sauropods in their
global context.
A review of British sauropods, showing which names are
more valid than others, and that the IoW Titanosaurus
is no such thing.
John
Martin (Haley Sharp Design, Leicester)
The Return of the Cetiosaurus:
taxonomy, nomenclature and relationships of a historic
British sauropod genus.
Cetiosaurus
oxoniensis is made the lectotype of Cetiosaurus,
and Cetiosaurus brevis
is an indet. sauropod, possible Pelorosaurus,
with bits of Iguanodon.
Angela
Milner (Natural History Museum, London)
Baryonyx,
a fish-eating dinosaur (Theropoda: Spinosauridae) from
southern England and the palaeobiology and palaeogeography
of the spinosaurids.
As with the Iguanodon
lecture, pretty much the same as we've heard before, with
the discovery and relatives being found worldwide. Also
stresses how important Baryonyx
is to our knowledge of spinosaurs, as it was the first
really good specimen, and that Suchomimus is a
synonym of Baryonyx.
Darren
Naish (University of Portsmouth)
The coelurosaurian theropods
of Britain.
A very technical but entertaining review of coelurusaurian
theropods of Britain, including two dromaeosaurs, the
possible velociraptorine Nuthetes and our old friend
Ornithodesmus.
Angel
Galobart, with Gaete, R., Santos, A., Suñer, M.
and Vila, B.
New dinosaur sites in Catalonia
and Valencia (J/K Boundary and Upper Cretaceous) and a
short overview of Mesozoic sites of Spain.
This was sadly cancelled due to technical problem.
Eric
Buffetaut (CNRS)
On the track of French Cretaceous
dinosaurs - in the field and in museums.
A look at dinosaurs from France - a bit odd for a seminar
on British Dinosaurs, but there you go.
James
Kirkland (Utah Geological Survey)
England at the Crossroads:
Early Cretaceous Dinosaurs from Utah indicates the Last
Mesozoic Pan-Laurasian Fauna predates Alaska.
Lots of dinosaurs from Utah, which again seems a bit odd
for a seminar on British Dinosaurs, although Utah seems
to have a very similar fauna to the Wealden of Britain.
Also much was said about the Mussentuchit Formation, which
has a mildly amusing name, and we were told to go and
collect all the dinosaurs there.
abstracts
should be available on-line from Dinosaur
Isle's website, www.dinosaurisle.com
[Due to a delay in this occuring, Abstracts are now available
in the Palaeontological
Associations Newsletter (Starts on Page 48)]
