How large was the Pararhabdodon?

"Pararhabdodon" most likely was a bipedal-quadrupedal herbivore, in the neighborhood of 6 m (19.7 ft) long, fully grown. The dorsal and sacral neural spines were elongate, so the animal would have had a tall back, like other hadrosaurids. Because the material is sparse, more specific conclusions cannot be reached.

Pararhabdodon

Pararhabdodon (meaning "near fluted tooth" in reference to "Rhabdodon") is a genus of tsintaosaurin hadrosaurid dinosaur, from the Maastrichtian-age Upper Cretaceous Tremp Formation of Spain. The first remains were discovered from the Sant Romà d’Abella fossil locality and assigned to the genus "Rhabdodon", and later named as the distinct species Pararhabdodon isonensis in 1993. Known material includes assorted postcranial remains, mostly vertebrae, as well as from the skull. Specimens from other sites, including remains from France, a maxilla previously considered the distinct taxon Koutalisaurus kohlerorum, an additional maxilla from another locality, the material assigned to the genera "Blasisaurus" and "Arenysaurus", and the extensive Basturs Poble bonebed have been considered at different times to belong to the species, but all of these assignments have more recently been questioned.

Initially, the material was thought to belong to a rhabdodontid dinosaur, or some other similar type of primitive iguanodontian. Later discoveries of additional material revealed its true nature as a hadrosaur. Its placement within the group remained controversial - in 1999 it was proposed it belonged to the subfamily Lambeosaurinae, making it the first known from the continent of Europe. Later studies questioned this, instead classifying it as a more primitive hadrosauroid. In 2009 evidence was put forward that it was indeed a lambeosaurine, and more specifically a close relative of "Tsintaosaurus", a genus from China. This position has been consistently found since, and the group containing them was later named Tsintaosaurini.

Excavation of specimens that would later be used to erect "Pararhabdodon" began in Spring 1985, at the Sant Romà d’Abella (SRA) locality (in the Pyrenees near Isona, Lleida, Spain) of Tremp Formation. In 1987, Casanovas-Cladellas "et al." described remains of an ornithopod from Catalonia, including a cervical vertebra, some partial dorsals, a humerus, and a fragmentary scapula, as "Rhabdodon" sp. New remains from this site, excavated in 1990, brought about a reconsideration of the material, and Casanovas-Cladellas and colleagues named it as the new genus and species "Pararhabdodon isonense" in 1993. At the time, it was still considered to be a rhabdodont-like basal iguanodont, hence the name; "isonense" was in reference to Isona.

Additional material from the type locality was collected in 1994 - including two maxillae, two dorsal vertebrae, a complete sacrum, two fragmentary ribs, and a partial ischium - and the species name was corrected to "isonensis" in 1997 by Laurent "et al.". New material, most importantly cranial and mandibular elements (those from the skull) led to Casanovas-Cladellas' team re-classifying it as a hadrosaurid as opposed to a basal iguanodont. In 1999 it was more specifically identified as a lambeosaurine hadrosaur, in a paper again by Casanovas-Cladellas "et al.". This made it the first member of the subfamily from the continent, and the second valid hadrosaur, preceeded by "Telmatosaurus" and the dubious "Orthomerus".

In total, known material from the type locality includes: a left and a right maxilla; five cervical, five dorsal, and one caudal vertebra; a sacrum; fragmentary rib bones; one end of the right ischium; a fragment of the left scapula, an ulna and a humerus. All of this material was excavated from a by surface, and it is thought to have belonged to a single individual. The holotype is a nearly complete caudally located cervical vertebra (a cervical vertebra located near the base of the neck), specimen number IPS SRA-1. Another cervical, a humerus, and an ulna were designated the paratype specimens.

In their 1997 paper, Laurent and colleagues referred additional remains (jaw material, vertebrae, and limb bones of multiple individuals of different ages) from the Le Bexen site of the uppermost Cretaceous of Aude, southern France, to the genus. Prieto-Márquez and colleagues commented on this referral in a 2006 paper, though noting they had not examined the material themselves. They concluded all of the specimens, excepting one fragmentary humerus, were too poorly preserved to allow proper comparison with the Spanish "Pararhabdodon" material, and so disagreed with the referral. Of the humerus, they found it was distinguishable from "P. isonensis", and so also not referable to the species. A group composed of some of the same authors as the 2006 study, including Prieto-Márquez, investigated the material first hand for a 2013 re-evaluation of all European lambeosaurine material, and supported their previous conclusions. Laurent had, in a 2003 dissertation, referred more French lambeosaurine material to "Pararhabdodon"; in this case, material held at the Musée des Dinosaures d’Espéraza. The referral was made as the genus was, at that point, the only lambeosaurine named from the continent. Prieto-Márquez "et al." (2013) used this material to establish their new taxon, "Canardia garonnensis".

In 2013, a maxilla, specimen designation MCD 4919, was referred to "P. isonensis". It possessed synapomorphies of the tsintaosaurin tribe to which "Pararhabdodon" was by that point assigned to, and was referable to "Pararhabdodon" in particular due to rostrocaudally broad rostrocaudal region of the maxilla, a trait unique to "P. isonensis" relative to "Tsintaosaurus", the other named tsintaosaurin taxon. The specimen was discovered at the Serrat del Rostiar 1 locality, part of the "lower red unit" of the Tremp formation just like the type locality, SRA, but in a lower section of the strata, making it older. This extended the range of species further within the upper Maastrichtian. The Serrat del Rostiar 1 locality is near the village of Basturns. In 2019, the new genus and species "Adynomosaurus arcanus" was described, and in the paper describing the referral of MCD 4919 to "P. isonensis" was questioned. The specimen was found to have a differing to the maxilla of the SRA "Pararhabdodon", which would conflict with their identity as belonging to the same species. As the specimen was still recognized as having tsintaosaurin characteristics, the authors still considered it to likely belong to a close relative of "P. isonensis".

The same study also evaluated "Blasisaurus canudoi", from the Blasi 1 locality of the underlying Arén Formation, and "Arenysaurus ardevoli", from the Blasi 3 locality of the earlier "gray unit" of the Tremp Formation. Previously claimed diagnostic traits of the two taxa were shown to be found in other hadrosaurs. This left the former with two unique characteristics - both in the jugal - and a unique combination of other characteristics, and the latter with only one unique characteristic - in the frontal. As overlapping fossils were not known for the relevant areas, it couldn't be ruled out that they were indeed synonymous, representatives of a single species. The same re-evaluation could not rule out that this single species or either of the separated species were synonyms of "Pararhabdodon isonensis", as no taxonomically informative areas of the skeleton are known from both "Pararhabdodon" and the other two taxa. The authors refrained from considering any of them representatives of one species pending data from more material.

Near the village Abella de la Conca, in the 1990s, palaeontologist Marc Boada discovered a new site in the Tremp Formation, bearing dinosaur fossils. From this site, later named Les Llaus (LL), a right dentary, specimen designation IPS SRA 27, was excavated. In 1997, Casanovas-Cladellas and colleagues stated this dentary was discovered from SRA, the site where the original "Pararhabdodon" remains were found. The following year, they described the specimen and referred it to "P. isonensis", and again stated it was from the same stratigraphic level. In 2006, the stratigraphy of the region was re-evaluated, and the dentary's location was corrected to the LL locality, away from and below the SRA locality.

The same 2006 study, by Albert Prieto-Márquez and colleagues, noted that no dentary had been found at the SRA locality to compare to the LL specimen, and so they restricted "P. isonensis" to material known from its original locality. Additionally, they named a genus and species for IPS SRA 27, "Koutalisaurus kohlerorum". The generic name is derived from the Greek word "koutali", meaning spoon, in reference to the shape the jaw of the animal would've had, and the specific name honours Terry and Mary Kohler, for their support of vertebrate paleontology. One autapomorphy (unique trait) was used to diagnose the taxon as a new species: a very elongated edentulous section on the dentary, which was medially (inwardly) extended. No teeth were preserved, but there are 35 tooth positions. Several other European hadrosaur dentaries were compared based on published data, and the specimen was found to be unique compared to all of them. Though the specimen proved too fragmentary to be used for phylogenetic analysis, it was determined to be a hadrosaurid of some kind, more derived than "Pararhabdodon", considered the sister taxon to Hadrosauridae. The authors noted the possibility future discoveries could lead to synonymization of their taxon with "P. isonensis"

Evidence for this synonymy would later come in a 2009 study, from Prieto-Márquez alongside Jonathan R. Wagner. Material from "Pararhabdodon", the holotype of "Koutalisaurus", and material of the Chinese species "Tsintaosaurus spinorhinus" were examined and compared, and the edentulous slope previously thought unique to "Koutalisaurus" was found to be nearly identical in "T. spinorhinus". It was noted various approaches could be taken to this matter. As the species "K. koelerororum" shared a unique trait with "Tsintaosaurus" and could not be distinguished from it, the former could be considered a junior synonym of the latter. However, it was noted that the likelihood of a large archosaur species with a large enough range to include both specimens is completely unprecedented, so they refrained from this referral. "K. kohlerorum" could instead be considered a "nomen dubium", a taxon of uncertain distinctiveness due to lacking any autapomorphies. But they disliked this course of action too, as unless a second taxon with the same morphology was found in the area, they posited the specimen likely did represent a unique component of the local fauna. Thus, they decided to keep it distinct, relative to "Tsintaosaurus". No material had, as yet, been discovered from the SRA locality permitting comparison with "Pararhabdodon". However, traits uniting "P. isonensis" with "T. spinorhinus" were found. As both taxa from the Tremp Formation uniquely shared traits with the Asian genus, the authors decided to treat the two as one species, as maintaining them as provisionally separate would in their eyes be misleading to non-specialists, who would likely not distinguish the two taxa were kept separate to be conservative and not due to strong evidence for two hadrosaurs in the area.

Prieto-Márquez returned again to the dentary in 2013, in a study alongside colleagues providing a review and investigation of hadrosaurs from all over Europe. Further preparation of the specimen in the time since his last study regarding it revealed the uniqueness of the dentary had been exaggerated significantly by reconstruction of the specimen when it was first prepared in the 1990s. The "Tsintaosaurus" specimens showing the similar condition were found to have been distorted from a similar process. Correcting for the innaccuracies, the Los Llaus dentary is indistinguishable from that of multiple lambeosaurines, and shares no particular connection to "Tsintaosaurus". With this, their reasoning for assignment of the specimen to "Pararhabdodon" was voided, and the specimen is now considered a completely indeterminate lambeosaurine dentary.

Marc Boada discovered, in the late 1990s, a new fossil-bearing locality from the village of Basturs. As the village already lent its name to a locality where dinosaur eggs had been found, it was named the Basturs Poble (BP) locality, "poble" derived from the word for village. The locality belongs to the Conques Formation of the Tremp Group, dated to the late-Early Maastrictian. Over ten years, from 2001 through 2011, field work was done at this site, and a massive bonebed - consisting of some one thousand skeletal elements - was discovered. The discovery was first reported in the literature in an abstract at the "55th Symposium for Vertebrate Palaeontology and Comparative Anatomy and the 16th meeting of the Symposium for Palaeontological Preparation and Conservation" conference in 2007. The authors, then, approached the bonebed under the hypothesis of a single species being present at the site. It was reported that all ontogenetic stages were present. Later, a poster presentation and abstract at another conference suggested the specimens may have belonged to "Koutalisaurus kohlororum", but they cautioned an adult dentary from the bonebed would need to be discovered to test the hypothesis. This was later rejected, as "Koutalisaurus" was found to be an invalid "nomen dubium". In 2018, the material was instead noted as possibly referrable to "Pararhabdodon isonensis".

The stratigraphic layer where the bonebed was found is in thickness. Around 95% of all remains from the site belong to dinosaurs; nearly all identified specimens from this sample belong to hadrosaurs. Of prepared material, 270 skeletal elements can confidently be identified as belonging to hadrosauroids. The number of hadrosaur specimens from the site in total could number over 500, and possibly as much as 900. In addition to the large numbers of fossils of the animals themselves, the BP locality is one of many sites from the Tremp Syncline where hadrosaurs tracks have been found. At least one track is preserved at the site, in a sandstone block from a stratigraphic level similar to that of the bonebed. It is the richest hadrosaur bonebed ever found in Europe, and the largest ever found in one palaeoinsular locale; as such, it is the most important hadrosauroid site of the eastern Tremp Syncline.

The primary subject of research regarding the bonebed has been the taxonomic identity of the hadrosaurs there - namely, whether only one taxon or multiple taxa are present. The question has been complicated by a rarity of cranial elements in the sample, since they are the most taxonomically informative areas of the skeleton in hadrosaurs. Initially, it was assumed that only a single species was present in the sample. In 2015, a study by Alejandro Blanco and colleagues performed multiple types of morphometric analysis to investigate hadrosaur diversity in from the Pyrenees using dentaries. The number of alveolar positions in the dentary was the primary metric for distinctiveness, as more basal taxa possess less, though it was noted this can also increase with age as an individual grows. Three morphotypes (groupings of specimens with a distinct anatomy from the other groupings) were found in the sample, of which two (numbers two and three) were present in the BP bonebed. Growth trajectory analysis of the different morphotypes supported their separation. Sexual dimorphism being the reason for different anatomy was considered unlikely due to different results in regression analysis. Morphotype three was interpreted as belonging to dwarf, potentially relictual hadrosauroids; and morphotype two was considered to represent larger, lambeosaurine animals. It was stressed each morphotype was not necessarily just one species, but merely representative of a distinct lineage of hadrosaurs. In 2018, a more extensive study of the material was conducted by Víctor Fondevilla and colleagues, and the question of how many taxa were present of the sample was investigated using specimens from multiple parts of the body, as opposed to just the dentaries. Overall, a large amount of variation was noted in the specimens, but as it was gradual, rather than a case of two obvious morphotypes, the authors attributed it to individual variation. Regarding the dentaries, they too were not found to obviously sort into multiple morphotypes due to a high amount of variation between all of them. One particular dentary was noted to be rather distinct from the rest, but taphonomic damage or improper restoration during preparation of the fossil were considered possible explanations as opposed to taxonomic distinctiveness. The authors favored identification of the hadrosaurs present in the bonebed as a singular taxon of lambeosaurine.

An intertwined subject to the taxonomy which has been noted and studied has been the size and ontogeny (growth and development) of the individuals represented. Individuals of multiple sizes are represented in the sample, but overall they represent smaller animals than the hadrosaurs known from Asian and North American species. Despite this, a small number of individuals falling into the adult size ranges of other hadrosaurs are indicated by isolated elements, such as femurs. Multiple hypotheses have been put forward to explain this: firstly, juvenile individuals may have been the dominant life stage living in the area where the bonebed was preserved, due to ecological differences over lifespan; secondly, it's possible they represent dwarfed animals dominating the environment relative to rare a larger species; lastly, it's possible the large individuals were comparative giants of a single dwarfed species, near the extreme end of individual variation in the species. The 2015 analysis of hadrosaur dentaries from the Pyrenees found two morphotypes to be present in the bonebed, so they favored the second hypothesis. The more in-depth 2018 study used histological analysis in order to assess the age of different individuals, using tibiae. Of the several tibiae tested, four (between long) were identified as juveniles between the ages of one and three based on comparisons to tissue patterns in other ornithopods, and three more were found to likely be juveniles based on similarities to the former four. The eighth ( long) and ninth ( long) were found to belong to an early adult and subadult individual respectively. A femur was found to share subadult growth features with the subadult tibia. Three tibiae (,, and around respectively) were found to belong to adult individuals. Growth trajectory was found to be consistent between the tibiae, supporting the idea that the site represents a large variety of age stages of a single species.

Fondevilla "et al." (2018) compared to the material from Basturs Poble to recognized species of lambeosaurine from geographically and temporally similar locations in the Pyrenees. The jugals from the sample were found to be distinct from those known from "Blasisaurus" and "Arenysaurus" (possible synonyms of "Pararhabdodon"), and the frontals were also distinguishable from the latter. Identity as specimens as either of those taxa was therefore ruled out. Overlapping taxonomically informative material with "Pararhabdodon" was not found from the bonebed, excepting a maxilla too fragmentary for use in referral. However, both the type locality of SRA and the locality of the referred maxilla MCD 4919 are close to the area the bonebed was found. As such, it was considered most likely the Basturs Poble hadrosaurs are members of the species "P. isonensis", but the poor state of preservation of the only comparable material in the bonebed prevented a secure referral. Later, a 2019 study by Prieto-Márquez "et al." described a new genus and species of Spanish lambeosaurine, "Adynomosaurus arcanus". They compared the material of their species to that of the bonebed, and though similarities were found, their tooth crowns and ilia had different shapes, and the from the site lacked the distinct shallow nature that characterizes "A. arcanus". Accordingly, they considered it unlikely the bonebed belonged to their species. Additionally, they commented on the lack of tsintaosaurin synapomorphies in the bonebed material and so kept a referral as indeterminate lambeosaurines rather than considering it to represent "Pararhabdodon".

"Pararhabdodon" has been classified in a number of different positions within Iguanodontia since its remains were first discovered in the mid-1980s. When the first speciemens were originally discovered and described by Casanovas-Cladellas and colleagues, they were not thought to belong a new taxon at all, but merely to belong to the genus "Rhabdodon", and of an uncertain species. Not long after, they would be recognized of those of a unique species, and in 1993 they were given their modern name. At this point it was still thought to be a rhabdodontid or some other type of primitive iguanodont closely related to them. This was based on the characteristics of its vertebrae, as the cranial remains had not yet been found. In 1994 these cranial remains would be found - two maxilla - and these would be used by the original authors to establish it as a species of hadrosaur.

Casanovas-Cladellas "et al." revised their position for a final time in 1999, when they published a paper arguing for a position as a primitive member of the hadrosaur subfamily Lambeosaurinae - this made it the first such species known from the continent of Europe. Characters of the skeleton supporting this viewpoint were the truncated and rounded anatomy of the articulation of the maxilla to the jugal, the truncated nature of the back of the maxilla itself, the ventral deflection of the front of the dentary (thought the only known dentary was later referred to a new species, "Koutalisaurus", and later declared that of indeterminate lambeosaurine), its tall neural spines, and of the humerus being distally projected.

The proposal that "P. isonensis" was the first known European lambeosaurine was soon challenged, however. In 2001, Jason Head, in a study re-evaluating the status of another species, "Eolambia caroljonesa", as a primitive lambeosaur. Both were determined to instead be more primitive hadrosauroids more basal than the split between Lambeosaurinae and "Hadrosaurinae" (later renamed to Saurolophinae). In regards to "Pararhabdodon", this was based on rebuttal of arguments put forward in the 1999 study; the present anatomy maxilla-jugal articulation was not considered a synapomorphy in Lambeosaurinae, merely the presence of this in the jugal itself, unknown in the species, and the angular deltopectoral crest is a trait present even in primitive iguanodontians. Additionally, its tooth count was lower than those of known lambeosaurs. In the 2006 re-evaluation of the genus by Albert Prieto-Márquez and colleagues, it was included in a phylogenetic analysis for the first time. This found it to be a non-hadrosaurid hadrosauroid, a similar position as had been argued by Head. The cladogram of Prieto-Márquez "et al." (2006) is seen below on the left:

Prieto-Márquez would return to the issue in 2009 along with Jonathan R. Wagner. They once again turned to the articulation between the maxilla and the jugal, finding this to link "Pararhabdodon" to the Asian lambeosaurine, "Tsintaosaurus spinorhinus". In the 2006 phylogenetic analysis, "P. isonenis" had been scored as having an ancestral hadrosauroid condition for this trait, which had a strong effect on its position. Upon instead coding it for a modified version of the more advanced hadrosaurid condition, the connection between the two species to the exclusion of other lambeosaurines was supported. Multiple synapomorphies were found uniting to the two taxa, as well as identifying "Pararhabdodon" as a member of the subfamily as opposed to outside of Hadrosauridae. This relationship was again supported in Prieto-Márquez "et al." (2013), where the group containing the two genera was coined as the taxonomic tribe Tsintaosaurini; a diagnosis for the tribe was provided. Their cladogram is reproduced above, on the right.


When were the first Olympic Games?

The 1896 Olympic Games were the first held in the Modern era and the most important international multi-sport event Greece had ever hosted. The rules of the Games generally excluded women from competition. Influenced by both his times—in the Victorian era women were considered to be inferior to men—and his admiration for the ancient Olympic Games, when only men were allowed to participate in the events, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the visionary of the modern Olympic Games, was not in favour of women's participation in the Olympic Games or in sports generally. He believed that a woman's greatest achievement would be to encourage her sons to be distinguished in sports and to applaud a man's effort.

Stamata Revithi

Stamata Revithi (; 1866 – after 1896) was a Greek woman who ran the 40-kilometre marathon during the 1896 Summer Olympics. The Games excluded women from competition, but Revithi insisted that she be allowed to run. Revithi ran one day after the men had completed the official race, and although she finished the marathon in approximately 5 hours and 30 minutes and found witnesses to sign their names and verify the running time, she was not allowed to enter the Panathinaiko Stadium at the end of the race. She intended to present her documentation to the Hellenic Olympic Committee in the hopes that they would recognize her achievement, but it is not known whether she did so. No known record survives of Revithi's life after her run.

According to contemporary sources, a second woman, "Melpomene", also ran the 1896 marathon race. There is debate among Olympic historians as to whether or not Revithi and Melpomene are the same person.

Stamata Revithi was born in Syros in 1866. Records of her life from 1896 show that she was living in poverty in Piraeus in 1896. At that point she had given birth to two children, a son who died in 1895, aged seven, and another child who was seventeen months old by the time of the 1896 Olympics. According to Olympic historian Athanasios Tarasouleas, Revithi, who was blonde and thin with large eyes, looked much older than her age.

Revithi believed that she could gain employment in Athens, and so walked there from her home—a distance of. Her journey took place several days prior to the Olympic marathon, a special race of invented as part of the athletics program, and based on Michel Bréal's idea of a race from the city of Marathon to the Pnyx. Bréal took inspiration from Pheidippides, who, according to legend, ran the distance from Marathon to Athens to announce the Greek victory over Persia at the Battle of Marathon, and died immediately after giving his message.

En route to Athens, Revithi encountered a male runner along the road. He gave her money and advised her to run the marathon to become famous, and, consequently, earn money or more easily find a job. After this discussion Revithi decided to run the race: she had enjoyed long-distance running as a child, and believed she could beat the male competitors.

Revithi arrived at the race location, the small village of Marathon, on Thursday, 9 April, where the athletes had already assembled for the following day's race. She attracted the attention of the reporters and was warmly greeted by Marathon's mayor, who sheltered her in his house. She answered the reporters' questions and was quick-witted when a male runner from Chalandri teased her, predicting that when she entered the Stadium, there would be no crowds left. Revithi retorted that he should not insult women, since male Greek athletes had already been humiliated by the Americans.

Prior to the start of the race on the morning of Friday, 10 April, the old priest of Marathon, Ioannis Veliotis, was scheduled to say a prayer for the athletes in the church of Saint John. Veliotis refused to bless Revithi because she was not an officially recognized athlete. The organizing committee ultimately refused her entry into the race. Officially, she was rejected because the deadline for participation had expired; however, as Olympic historians David Martin and Roger Gynn point out, the real problem was her gender. According to Tarasouleas, the organizers promised that she would compete with a team of American women in another race in Athens, which never took place.

Beginning at 8:00 the following day, Revithi ran the marathon course on her own. Before starting, she had the town's only teacher, the mayor, and the city magistrate sign a statement testifying to the time she departed from the village. She ran the race at a steady pace and reached Parapigmata (the place where the Evangelismos Hospital stands today, near the Hilton Athens) at 13:30 (5½ hours). Revithi was not allowed to enter Panathinaiko Stadium—her race was stopped in Parapigmata by a few Greek military officers whom she asked to sign her handwritten report to certify her time of arrival in Athens. She stated to the reporters that she wanted to meet Timoleon Philimon (the General-Secretary of the Hellenic Olympic Committee) to present her case. Historians believe that she intended to present her documents to the Hellenic Olympic Committee in the hopes that they would recognize her achievement. Neither her reports nor documents from the Hellenic Olympic Committee have been discovered to provide corroboration.

There is no account of Revithi's life following the marathon. Although some newspapers printed articles about her story in the build-up to the marathon, these reports did not follow up on her life after the race. It is not known whether she met Philimon or if she ever found a job. As Tarasouleas stated, "Stamata Revithi was lost in the dust of history". Violet Piercy, of the United Kingdom, was the first woman to complete an officially timed marathon race: she clocked a time of 3 hours and 40 minutes in a British race on 3 October 1926. Women were finally allowed to run the Olympic marathon at the 1984 Summer Olympics, when American Joan Benoit won the inaugural race in a time of 2 hours and 24 minutes.

In March 1896, a French-language newspaper in Athens (the "Messager d'Athènes") reported that there was "talk of a woman who had enrolled as a participant in the Marathon race. In the test run which she completed on her own [...] she took 4½ hours to run the distance of 42 kilometres which separates Marathon from Athens." Later that year, Franz Kémény, a founding International Olympic Committee member from Hungary, wrote in German that, "indeed a lady, Miss Melpomene, completed the 40 kilometres marathon in 4½ hours and requested an entry into the Olympic Games competition. This was reportedly denied by the commission." According to Martin and Gynn, "a peculiarity here is why there is no first name for Melpomene". The "Messager" report faded into obscurity for about 30 years before it was revived in 1927 in an issue of "Der Leichtathlet".

Olympic historian Karl Lennartz contends that two women ran the marathon in 1896, and that the name "Melpomene" was confirmed by both Kémény and Alfréd Hajós, two-time Olympic swim champion of 1896. Lennartz presents the following account: a young woman named Melpomene wanted to run the race and completed the distance in 4½ hours at the end of February or the beginning of March. The organizing committee, however, did not allow her to run, and the newspaper "Akropolis" criticized the committee for its decision. The Olympic Marathon took place on 10 April 1896, and another female runner, Stamata Revithi, took 5½ hours to run the course on 11 April 1896. The newspapers "Asti", "New Aristophanes" and "Atlantida" reported this on 12 April 1896.

However, Tarasouleas argues that no contemporary press reports in Greek newspapers mention Melpomene by name, while the name Revithi appears many times; Tarasouleas suggests that Melpomene and Revithi are the same person, and Martin and Green argue that "a contemporary account referring to Revithi as a well-known marathon runner could explain the earlier run by a woman over the marathon course—this was by Revithi herself, not Melpomene". The daily Athens newspaper "Estia" of 4 April 1896 refers to "the strange woman, who, having run a few days ago in the Marathon as a try-out, intends to compete the day after tomorrow. Today she came to our offices and said'should my shoes hinder me, I will remove them on the way and continue barefoot'." Moreover, Tarasouleas notes that on 13 March 1896, another local newspaper indicated that a woman and her baby had registered to run the marathon, but again her name is not mentioned. Trying to resolve the mystery, Tarasouleas asserts that "perhaps Revithi had two names, or perhaps for reasons unknown she was attributed the name of the Muse Melpomene".