The SVP 2024 abstract book dropped earlier this week. You can download it here.

Western University of Health Sciences

Matt Wedel

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[![](https://svpow.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/rebor-snax-jungle-variant-6.jpg?w=480){.wp-image-22930
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image-title="Rebor Snax jungle variant 6" image-description=""
image-caption=""
medium-file="https://svpow.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/rebor-snax-jungle-variant-6.jpg?w=300"
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tabindex="0" role="button" loading="lazy" width="480"
height="320"}](https://svpow.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/rebor-snax-jungle-variant-6.jpg)

The [Rebor](https://www.bigbadtoystore.com/Search?Company=443) model of
*Saurophaganax* "Notorious BIG Jungle Variant", photo from the [Big Bad
Toy
Store](https://www.bigbadtoystore.com/Product/VariationDetails/189090?o=4).
:::

The SVP 2024 abstract book dropped earlier this week. You can download
it
[here](https://vertpaleo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/2024_SVP_Program_Final3.pdf).

I'm not on Twitter, but friends inform me that there's a lot of
discussion going on about the Danison et al. abstract on which I'm an
author (pp. 164-165 in the abstract book, or I excerpted it as a
separate file at [this
link](https://sauroposeidon.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/danison-et-al-2024-svp-abstract-on-saurophaganax.pdf)).

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[![](https://svpow.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/saurophaganax-and-allosaurus-claws-compared-1.jpg?w=480){.wp-image-22934
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image-title="Saurophaganax and Allosaurus claws compared"
image-description="" image-caption=""
medium-file="https://svpow.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/saurophaganax-and-allosaurus-claws-compared-1.jpg?w=300"
large-file="https://svpow.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/saurophaganax-and-allosaurus-claws-compared-1.jpg?w=1024"
tabindex="0" role="button" loading="lazy" width="480"
height="480"}](https://svpow.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/saurophaganax-and-allosaurus-claws-compared-1.jpg)

Left: unpainted cast of the thumb claw of the giant Oklahoma allosaurid
(referred to *Saurophaganax*, as of this writing and for at least a
little while longer). Right: a commercially available cast of a big
*Allosaurus* thumb claw (dunno which one, I bought this in the Dinosaur
National Monument gift shop a few years ago, maybe some CLDQ specimen?).
Old school wooden ruler for scale.
:::

I'm not going to give any more technical information right now than you
can read in the abstract. But if you want more, I have two pieces of
good news. First, if you're going to SVP you can catch Andy Danison's
talk on Friday morning in the Theropoda 1 session.

Second, and of more global reach, we --- the same author team from the
abstract --- have a long, lavishly illustrated paper in revision at an
open access journal. The paper goes into far more detail, and with all
the evidence we could bring to bear, on the identity of the type and
referred material of *Saurophaganax*. And it will be freely available to
the world once it's published.

[![](https://svpow.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/derpystego-tweet.jpg?w=252){.wp-image-22936
.size-medium .aligncenter attachment-id="22936"
permalink="http://svpow.com/2024/10/20/about-that-saurophaganax-abstract/derpystego-tweet/"
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image-title="derpystego tweet" image-description="" image-caption=""
medium-file="https://svpow.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/derpystego-tweet.jpg?w=252"
large-file="https://svpow.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/derpystego-tweet.jpg?w=589"
tabindex="0" role="button" loading="lazy" width="252"
height="300"}](https://svpow.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/derpystego-tweet.jpg)

This tweet is flattering (misspelled name notwithstanding). It hits on
something important, though: all of us on the author slate knew this was
a big swing, and that it would be heavily scrutinized by both
professional paleontologists and folks with an avocational interest, and
we wouldn't have put our names to it if we weren't pretty darned sure we
were right. That doesn't mean our hypothesis is any more correct!
Science runs on evidence, not reputations (or at least it should). But
we are all putting our reputations on the line here to some extent,
which at least tells you what *we* think of the evidence. So, yeah, as
the abstract says, in our estimation the axial elements used to diagnose
*Saurophaganax*, including the holotype, belong to one or more
sauropods. (If you disagree, that's cool. I'm not going to engage in any
skirmishes right now when our battleship will be in range shortly.)

That still leaves a big pile of material from a really big allosaurid.
Obviously any taxonomic acts coming out of this project will be in the
paper, and not in the talk or the abstract. With any luck, we won't have
long to wait.

And, like Forrest Gump, that's all I have to say about that.

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image-title="Atterholt and Wedel 2022 Figure 3" image-description=""
image-caption="Atterholt and Wedel (2022: fig. 3)
"
medium-file="https://svpow.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/atterholt-and-wedel-2022-figure-3.jpg?w=300"
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Paramedullary diverticula in ostriches. If you like this sort of
thing...hold onto your butts! Atterholt and Wedel (2022: fig. 3).
:::

Since I don't know if I'll get around to posting again before SVP, I
should shout out a couple more presentations. One is the Atterholt et
al. talk on paramedullary diverticula in extinct ornithodirans,
including pterosaurs, non-avian dinosaurs, and fossil birds --- that's
the other one on which I'm an author. Abstract on page 85 of the
abstract book, and Jessie's talk will be on Friday afternoon. Another is
the Hart et al. poster on a vertebra of the tomistomine croc
*Thecachampsa*. Abstract on page 243, poster will be Saturday afternoon.
I'm not an author on this one, not involved in the research, but if you
read the abstract in light of [recent activity
here](https://svpow.com/2024/08/29/new-paper-atterholt-et-al-2024-on-neural-canal-ridges-in-dinosaurs/),
you'll know why I'm stoked about it!

# References

- Atterholt, J., Wedel, M., Benito, J., and Field, D.J. 2024. Evidence
 of paramedullary diverticula in extinct ornithodirans. Society of
 Vertebrate Paleontology 84th Annual Meeting Program, p. 85.
- Danison, A., Woodward, H.N., Barta, D.E., Wedel, M., Lee, A.H., Flora,
 H., and Snively, E. 2024. Osteohistology, probable chimerism, and
 taxonomic revision of *Saurophaganax maximus*. Society of Vertebrate
 Paleontology 84th Annual Meeting Program, pp. 164-165.
- Hart, W.J., Hill, R.V., and Bennington, J.B. 2024. A caudal vertebra
 from *Thecachampsa* sp. (Crocodylia: Tomistominae) with comments on
 systematics. Society of Vertebrate Paleontology 84th Annual Meeting
 Program, p. 243.

 

------------------------------------------------------------------------

[doi:10.59350/10vtq-4tb98](https://doi.org/10.59350/10vtq-4tb98)

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About that Saurophaganax abstract

New paper out, er, yesterday: Atterholt, J., Wedel, M.J., Tykoski, R., Fiorillo, A.R., Holwerda, F., Nalley, T.K., Lepore, T., and Yasmer, J. 2024. Neural canal ridges: a novel osteological correlate of postcranial neuroanatomy in dinosaurs. The Anatomical Record, 1-20. https://doi.org/10.1002/ar.25558 This one started a bit over 10 years ago, on April 9, 2014.

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New paper: Atterholt et al. (2024) on neural canal ridges in dinosaurs

[![](https://svpow.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/pneumatic-allosaurus-cervical.jpg?w=1024&h=768){.size-large
.wp-image-16693 .aligncenter attachment-id="16693"
permalink="http://svpow.com/2019/10/12/a-nice-pneumatic-allosaurus-cervical/pneumatic-allosaurus-cervical/"
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image-title="Pneumatic Allosaurus cervical" image-description=""
image-caption=""
medium-file="https://svpow.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/pneumatic-allosaurus-cervical.jpg?w=300"
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loading="lazy"
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sizes="(max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px"}](https://svpow.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/pneumatic-allosaurus-cervical.jpg)

Spotted this beauty in the collections at Dinosaur Journey this past
summer. With the front end of the centrum blown off, taphonomy once
again proves to be the poor man's CT machine, giving us a great look at
the pneumatic spaces inside the vertebra.

**EDIT, Oct. 13, 2019** --- WHOOPS! That ain't a cervical. Based on the
plates in Madsen (1976), it's a dead ringer for the second dorsal
vertebra.

::: {#attachment_16698 .wp-caption .aligncenter shortcode="caption" style="width: 1034px"}
![Allosaurus fragilis cervicodorsal transition - Madsen 1976 plates
14-16](https://svpow.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/allosaurus-fragilis-cervicodorsal-transition-madsen-1976-plates-14-16.jpg?w=1024&h=651){.wp-image-16698
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image-title="Allosaurus fragilis cervicodorsal transition – Madsen 1976 plates 14-16"
image-description=""
image-caption="Vertebrae C7 through D3 in Allosaurus fragilis, from plates 14-16 in Madsen (1976). Abbreviations: dp, diapophysis; li, interspinous ligament scar; nc, neural canal; ns, neural spine; pp, parapophysis; pr, prezygapophysis.
"
medium-file="https://svpow.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/allosaurus-fragilis-cervicodorsal-transition-madsen-1976-plates-14-16.jpg?w=300"
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loading="lazy"
srcset="https://svpow.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/allosaurus-fragilis-cervicodorsal-transition-madsen-1976-plates-14-16.jpg?w=480 480w, https://svpow.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/allosaurus-fragilis-cervicodorsal-transition-madsen-1976-plates-14-16.jpg?w=960 960w, https://svpow.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/allosaurus-fragilis-cervicodorsal-transition-madsen-1976-plates-14-16.jpg?w=150 150w, https://svpow.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/allosaurus-fragilis-cervicodorsal-transition-madsen-1976-plates-14-16.jpg?w=300 300w, https://svpow.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/allosaurus-fragilis-cervicodorsal-transition-madsen-1976-plates-14-16.jpg?w=768 768w"
sizes="(max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px"}

Vertebrae C7 through D3 of *Allosaurus fragilis* in anterior view, from
plates 14-16 in Madsen (1976). Abbreviations: dp, diapophysis; li,
interspinous ligament scar; nc, neural canal; ns, neural spine; pp,
parapophysis; pr, prezygapophysis.
:::

## Reference

Madsen, Jr., J.H. 1976. *Allosaurus fragilis*: a revised osteology. Utah
Geological and Mining Survey Bulletin 109: 1-163.

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Messaggi di Rogue Scholar

About that Saurophaganax abstract

New paper: Atterholt et al. (2024) on neural canal ridges in dinosaurs

A nice pneumatic Allosaurus cervical dorsal