Suuwassea dinosaur & Flagellicaudata

[Ken Kinman]

Dear All,
      A new dinosaur named Suuwassea (cool name), as well as a new higher level taxon Flagellicaudata (dumb name and poorly defined), appear in this paper:

Jerald D. Harris and Peter Dodson, 2004.  A new diplodocoid sauropod dinosaur from the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation of Montana, USA.  Acta Palaeontologica Polonica, 49(2): 197-210.

     Unfortunately the authors define a new node-based taxon Flagellicaudata as "the most recent common ancestor of _Dicraeosaurus_ and _Diplodocus_ and all of its descendants".   Although they seem to assign Suuwassea to this taxon, even their own analysis shows it could fall outside of this strictly defined clade.

     Hopefully that will not be the case, or the taxon definition can be refined before being formalized by the PhyloCode.  Either way, Flagellicaudata is an extremely unfortunate neologism that seems more fitting for certain bacteria or protists, or other whip-tailed organisms.  What were they thinking?  Besides, it's an unnecessary and premature muddling of a highly uncertain phylogeny.  Maybe it will turn out to be a synonym of Diplodocoidea (keep your fingers crossed).
         ------  Ken Kinman
P.S.  What is really interesting about Suuwassea is that it has an extra hole in its skull (and the function of that hole is unknown).