EMBARGOED UNTIL 12 JUNE 2007

Ancient Long-necked Gliding Reptile Discovered

CHICAGO, IL (June 12, 2007) –  In the latest issue of the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, scientists describe a remarkable new long-necked, gliding reptile from 220 million-year old sediments of eastern north America. Mecistotrachelos apeoros (meaning “soaring, long-necked”) is based on two fossils excavated at the Solite Quarry that straddles the Virginia-North Carolina state line. Nick Fraser of the Virginia Museum of Natural History, who discovered the fossils, said that while two other reptiles with similar gliding membranes are known from the Triassic Period, they have much shorter necks and therefore conform more to the modern gliding lizard, Draco. Fraser said “one of the really neat things about the new glider is the feet. They are preserved in a hooked posture which is unusual and strongly suggests a grasping habit, further emphasizing a life style in the trees.” It probably fed on insects, scuttling up tree trunks and foraging on the way, before gliding onto neighboring trees.

The relationships of Mecistotrachelos are unclear, but Fraser considers that it is probably related to the protorosaurs. Protorosaurs are a group of extinct reptiles characterized by a long-necked, including the bizarre Tanystropheus which had a neck longer than the length of the body and tail combined.

Because of the nature of the sediments, it was not possible to prepare the fossils by standard mechanical methods and the descriptions are based entirely on CT scans. This technique has only been rarely used to describe new species. Tim Ryan of the Center for Quantitative Imaging at Pennsylvania State University led the work on the CT scanning. “This is a really cool little reptile which was very difficult to see until we looked at the CT scans”, commented Ryan. The other authors are Alton Dooley, also of the Virginia Museum of Natural History, and Paul Olsen of the Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University who originally discovered the site over 30 years ago.

The ongoing excavations at the quarry by the Virginia Museum of Natural History have been supported by the National Geographic Society and the US National Science Foundation.

View an image of Mecistotrachelos apeoros at 

http://magnetmail.net/images/clients/Sher_SVP/attach/Fraser_Art_PR_06_06_07.gif

Restoration artwork courtesy of Karen Carr.

ABOUT THE SOCIETY OF VERTEBRATE PALEONTOLOGY
Founded in 1940 by thirty-four paleontologists, the Society now has over 2,000 members representing professionals, students, artists, preparators, and others interested in VP. It is organized exclusively for educational and scientific purposes, with the object of advancing the science of vertebrate paleontology.
 
The Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology
JVP is the leading journal of professional vertebrate paleontology and the flagship publication of the Society. It was founded in 1980 by Dr. Jiri Zidek and publishes contributions on all aspects of VP. 

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Nick Fraser
Director of Research and Collections
Virginia Museum of Natural History
21 Starling Avenue
Martinsville, Virginia 24112
Tel: (276) 634 4170
nick.fraser@vmnh.virginia.gov

Kazimierz Kowalski 
(March 15, 1925 – May 29, 2007)

Kazimierz Kowalski was born in Krakow in 1925. His father, Prof. Tadeusz Kowalski, was an outstanding orientalist of Jagellonian University and mother Zofia Medwecka, a medical doctor. He graduated from the University in 1947 and defended his PhD thesis on living two rodents in 1949.

From 1948 he worked as a research assistant and instructor at the Department of Animal Psychology and Ethology at the Jagellonian University until 1954, when he continued his research in the Krakow Branch of the Institute of Zoology of the Polish Academy of Sciences, later the Institute of Systematics and Evolution of Animals. Prof. K. Kowalski was at the head of this Institute and its Vertebrates Department from 1960 to 1978 and from 1985 to 1987. During five years (1978-1983) he interrupted his activity in Krakow and went to Algeria where he was professor of the Oran University, lectured in zoology and studied the mammalian fauna of the country.

Prof. K.Kowalski was an outstanding zoologist, paleontologist, taphonomist and speleologist. He was the organizer and leader of many caving and surveying expeditions to Polish caves as well as to caves in Bulgaria, Slovakia, Hungary, France, Cuba and Mexico. He was the head of the first Polish-Mongolian paleontological expedition to the Gobi Desert (1964), organized by the Institute of Paleobiology in Warsaw. Moreover he organized and headed a zoological expedition to some countries of the Near East in 1977. He studied biology and faunas of living mammals in Poland, Algeria and other countries. He participated in the investigation of the deposits of Yugoslavia, China, Japan and Czechoslovakia. His scientific interest covered mainly small mammals from the Oligocene to Recent time, including ecology, faunal composition, systematics, evolution, phylogeny, dynamics of the paleoecosystem, paleoclimatic changes, formation of tundra faunas, taphonomy of numerous Miocene-Pleistocene sites, many of which were discovered by him.

Prof. K. Kowalski had contact and cooperations with many scientists of the world. His research activity and wide investigations resulted in many publications in different countries. He was as well the editor of many publications. During his long life Kowalski published 12 monographs and more than 500 scientific papers and numerous articles including reviews, congress reports and abstracts, popular articles, notes and entries in encyclopedias. His first and later publications were devoted to study in the caves of Poland (Jaskinie Polski, 1951, 1953, 1954, 1956, 1965). It is well known “Katalog ssakow plejstocenu Polski” (1959), “Ssaki. Zarys teriologii (1971), “Mammals” (1976), “Gromada Ssaki – Mammalia” (1979), “Die Tiere des Eiszeitalters” (1986), Stratigrapy of Neogene mammals of Poland” (1990), “Mammals of Algeria” (1991, co-author Rzebik-Kowalska B.), “Pleistocene Rodents of Europe” (2001), “Pleistocene rodents of the British Isles” (1976, co-author A. Sutcliffe), “Quaternary rodents from Japan” (1976, co-author Y. Hasegawa) and others.

Significant contributions of Prof. Kowalski to the scientific life of Poland are well known too. He was the founder of the Theriologica Section of the Poilsh Zoological Society, he was Scientific Secretary (1988-1969) and chairman (1984-1987) of the Committee for Zoology PAS, Presidium member of the Krakow Branch of PAS a.o., and he organized the scientific Station of PAAS in New York.

In 1971 he was elected corresponding member of Polish Academy of Sciences and in 1986 full member of this Academy, and in 1994 was elected President of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences.

In 2005 Professor Kowalski was awarded “Super Colossus” for his whole of achievements in the field of speleology by the Polish Society of Travellers, Alpinists and Sailors. 


Collected by Margarita Erbajeva.
Photo courtesy of Margarita Erbajeva.