Just the Facts

The Ischigualasto Formation of Argentina has yielded quite a few good specimens of Triassic dinosaurs, amongst other large land vertebrates of the time. It does not come as a surprise then that many animals in the formation have been identified as basal sauropodomorphs or theropods along with the first animals we can think of as true sauropodomorphs and theropods, in some instances. South America, in fact, has become a hot place to be to dig up not only very early dinosaurs but later titans and leviathans as well as rather large predators as well. There is a lot more to be said about that... and if I only had a sponsor who would pay my bills so I could write and research even more... we can all hope and dream.

At any rate, our friend at the Theropod Archives has come through again for us and he has found a copy of the original Sereno, Forster, et al. paper that names and describes Eoraptor. As with all of their publications, Sereno and Forster, from this time and later, the information is well detailed and written and, as much as a science paper can be, interesting to read (facts and figures some days are just too much to sit and read, trust me, I have to do teacher related book studies for professional development and... well they are not page turners). Should anyone wish to read their paper please send me a message as it is not hosted online anywhere and I don't have the permissions to post it for the authors. I'm only rarely in touch with one of them actually, so it would take a good while to get the permissions anyhow, but I can share the article, there's no harm in that! It has some good illustrations of the skull and skeleton as well as good information about the animal and its, at the time, placement as a basal theropod (which was based a great deal on the tridactyl manus of the animal).