Talk:Megalosaurus

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The article said that the 1676 discovery was of "A jawbone and teeth" but Plot's picture clearly shows the lower extremity of a femur. Is this just a mistake, or was there more material recovered? Gdr 04:18:30, 2005-08-01 (UTC)

Yes, it seems there was another discovery in 1818. Gdr 04:20:41, 2005-08-01 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] Gallery of pics, for review please

Hi, No feedback from 'Image Review' page, so I've created a 'gallery' on the article, so that folk can take a look - I've put another message on the image review page, so it should turn up on people's 'watchlist', somewhere. (May have been missed with the hornet's nest created by my 'model' photos!) - Ballista 17:17, 25 June 2006 (UTC)

Tricky, I had a load of images on other pages which I put into galleries only to have someone take it all off and redirect link to Wikipedia commons gallery. I have been working with some others and tend to agree the images have a bit more oompf when they are within the body of the text. A second photo of teh old-style reconstruction is probably redundant, while the bones could be scattered down the left size in a floating left column near where they are mentioned in the text. The trackway...? A mention then made of that separately, I guess.

I don't have any primary therapod texts which talk about this dinosaur unfortunately as I would add more. But I will look around. Cas Liber 21:06, 25 June 2006 (UTC)

Yes, I realise some sensitivity about galleries - only done like that to make them available - we can then do as you (or others ) suggest, ref. positioning. Thanks for constructive response - Ballista 21:33, 25 June 2006 (UTC)

I think we should steer away from the gallery look. It is generally regarded as a sign of a lack imagination, where one can just plonk any old pic there without editing them carefully into the article's text. In my experience, galleries are frowned upon & usually are forced to be deleted during FAC or peer review. For now it should stay until more text is created to place the pics in, but after that, or if it is up for FAC, the gallery should be deleted... Spawn Man 02:46, 26 June 2006 (UTC)

Seems entirely logical and I had intended that they should be selected and inserted, acc. to editors' decisions. - Ballista 02:55, 26 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Grammar error?

"...he named the genus Megalosaurus, estimating it to be 12 m long." I'm just dumb foreigner, or did he estimate the genus, not animal itself, being 12 meters long? --195.148.29.73 15:24, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

Good catch, I'll fix it.Dinoguy2 01:05, 20 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Species

But there are no more species of Megalosaurus? If you see in Haţeg Island the list of the species found there contains "Megalosaurus hungaricus" (one that not appears in this article), also in Megalosaurus at Spanish Wikipedia there are listed 25 species, some are invalid but not all except the "Megalosaurus bucklandii" and the dubious "Megalosaurus hesperis". Really how much species have the Megalosaurus?--201.218.24.21 21:58, 18 December 2006 (UTC)

Megalosaurus hungaricus is a nomen dubium, known from a single tooth. It's impossible to say for sure if it even comes from Megalosaurus, or even from a megalosauroid. M. hesperis should be listed, since it's different enough that some people have implied it will be placed in its own genus, "Walkersaurus". Dinoguy2 22:32, 18 December 2006 (UTC)
Yes but the list of 25 species of Megalosaurus in Spanish Wikipedia? All are invalid except Megalosaurus bucklandii?--201.218.24.21 05:45, 27 December 2006 (UTC)
Most likely, yes. Megalosaurus has hisorically been awastebin taxon, where any large thropod and/or tiny scrap of unidentifiable bone was given its own species within M.. Dinoguy2 14:17, 27 December 2006 (UTC)

I have a personal record of other species, M. cuvieri, M. dunkeri, and M. parkeri. Can anyone else verify these? Ninjatacoshell 22:22, 12 April 2007 (UTC)

M. cuvieri is a Streptospondylus species, if I recall correctly. M. dunkeri is supposed to be the type species for Altispinax, which is a nasty ball of yarn. M. parkeri is now the type species of Metriacanthosaurus. J. Spencer 22:26, 12 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Authorship of Megalosaurus and "Megalosaurus" cambrensis

The correct authorship for Megalosaurus bucklandii is Ritgen, 1826, according to http://staff.washington.edu/eoraptor/Megalosauroidea.htm, so change the authorship for Megalosaurus bucklandii from Mantell, 1827 to Ritgen, 1826.

Ritgen, F., 1826. Versuchte Herstellung einiger Becken urweltlichter Thiere. Nova Acta Caesareaa Leopold.-Carol. Ger. Nat. Curiosorum. 13, 331-358.

Remove "M." cambrensis from the Taxobox and merge it with the "Newtonsaurus" page when the name "Newtonsaurus" is published.

Not quite--Ritgen described Megalosaurus conybeari, a name that would have priority, but it's a nomen oblitum, not M. bucklandii. Also see [1]. M. cambrensis should stay here until it is formally moved to a new genus, not just erased from existance, so to speak (same situation as "Dilophosaurus sinensis"--everybody knows it's not Dilophosaurus, but moving it would be original research until it's published, and deleting it would be counter productive). Dinoguy2 02:03, 4 January 2007 (UTC)
I don't think that "Newtonsaurus" will ever be formally published, anyway (at least not by the original author). J. Spencer 04:30, 4 January 2007 (UTC)