Galveosaurus
| Galveosaurus Temporal range: Jurassic-Cretaceous
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Galveosaurus
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| Galveosaurus herreroi Sánchez-Hernández, 2005
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Galvesaurus herreroi Barco et al., 2005 |
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Galveosaurus is an extinct genus of dinosaur from the Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous periods. Its fossils were found in Galve, Spain, hence its generic name, "Galve lizard". The specific name honours the discoverer, José María Herrero.
Taxonomic history
The description of the sauropod from Galve was not as straightforward as is typical for most dinosaurs. Problems arose when the same specimen, housed at the Museo Paleontológico de Galve, was studied and published almost simultaneously by two groups of scientists, both of whom were unaware the other was studying exactly the same bones, the holotype material.
The type species, Galveosaurus herreroi, was first described by Bárbara Sánchez-Hernández in a paper published on August 11, 2005, based on a partial skeleton housed in the Spanish Paleontological Museum of Galve. At the same time, the team of Barco, Canudo, Cuenca-Bescós and Ruíz-Omeñaca had been studying the same specimen. Barco et al. published their own description of the sauropod, which they named Galvesaurus herreroi (note the lack of the letter "o"), in the journal Naturaleza Aragonesa on December 18, 2005, but the date they give in their paper is July 1, 2005. If that date had been correct, the valid name for this dinosaur would be Galvesaurus herreroi, and attributed to Barco et al. rather than to Sánchez-Hernández. However, the date the authors provide is contradicted by the date of publication listed for the journal as a whole (15 July–December, 2005). Sánchez-Hernández (2006) pointed to ICZN articles 21 and 23, which she claimed the publication date of Barco et al. (2005) is technically considered to be December 31, 2005. Therefore, Galveosaurus herreroi (Sánchez-Hernández 2005) is the valid name for this species.
References
- Barco, J.L., Canudo, J.L., Cuenca-Bescós, G. & Ruíz-Omeñaca, J.I. (2005). "Un nuevo dinosaurio saurópodo, Galvesaurus herreroi gen. nov., sp. nov., del tránsito Jurásico-Cretácico en Galve (Teruel, NE de España)." Naturaleza Aragonesa 15: 4-17.
- Sánchez-Hernández, B. (2005). "Galveosaurus herreroi, a new sauropod dinosaur from Villar del Arzobispo Formation (Tithonian-Berriasian) of Spain." Zootaxa 1034: 1–20.
- Sánchez-Hernández, B. (2006). "The new sauropod from Spain: Galveosaurus or Galvesaurus?", Zootaxa 15 May 2006 (On-line pdf file)
