Sunday, December 13, 2015

The Giving of December. Galveosaurus

Galveosaurus was very nearly named Galvesaurus because not one but two descriptions for this sauropod dinosaur were published very close to one another.‭ ‬This all came down to holotype remains which were in storage in the Spanish Paleontological Museum of Galve.‭ ‬An independent palaeontologist named Bárbara Sánchez-Hernández published a paper describing the remains as Galveosaurus in August‭ ‬2005,‭ ‬while a team composed of J.‭ ‬L.‭ ‬Barco,‭ ‬J.‭ ‬L.‭ ‬Canudo,‭ ‬G.‭ ‬Cuenca-Bescós and J.‭ ‬I.‭ ‬Ruíz-Omeñaca published an alternate paper with the remains named as Galvesaurus.‭ ‬This team said that the date of their paper was the‭ ‬1st July‭ ‬2005,‭ ‬however they were actually beaten upon a technicality
       Bárbara Sánchez-Hernández published her paper in Zootaxa and is credited with a publication date of August‭ ‬11th‭ ‬2005.‭ ‬Barco et al published their paper in Naturaleza Aragonesa and even though they claimed July‭ ‬1st as the publication date,‭ ‬the‭ ‬actual‭ ‬publication date of that issue of Naturaleza Aragonesa was credited as July‭ ‬15th‭ ‬-‭ ‬December‭ ‬2005.‭ ‬Later in‭ ‬2006‭ ‬Bárbara Sánchez-Hernández pointed out articles‭ ‬21‭ ‬and‭ ‬23‭ ‬of the ICZN‭ (‬the international commission that governs the naming of species and genera‭) ‬the paper by Barco et al could only be credited as the‭ ‬31st of December‭ ‬2005.‭ ‬It is because of this technicality that Bárbara Sánchez-Hernández is credited as the person who named Galveosaurus,‭ ‬and that Galvesaurus is preserved as a synonym to Galveosaurus.
       Galveosaurus has been identified as a member of the Turiasauria,‭ ‬indicating that the genus was more closely related to genera such as Turiasaurus,‭ ‬Zby and Losillasaurus.‭ ‬All in all Galveosaurus seems to have been a mid-sized sauropod dinosaur,‭ ‬that was pretty average for the European continent which during the late Jurassic/early Cretaceous was more like a group of islands rather than a single continental landmass‭ (‬though genera such as Turiasaurus are known to have grown much bigger‭)‬.‭ ‬In addition to the smaller size of Galveosaurus,‭ ‬the bones are also noted as being quite gracile indicating that Galveosaurus would have also been lightly built.‭ ‬Possible predatory threats to Galveosaurus would likely include large predatory theropod dinosaurs similar to Torvosaurus,‭ ‬which is known from late Jurassic aged deposits in nearby Portugal.

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