Sauropods under one (very high) roof

The Morrison Formation has been explored for dinosaurs for more than 150 years, in particular for large sauropod skeletons to be mounted in museum exhibits around the world. Several long-term campaigns to the Jurassic West of the United States produced hundreds of specimens, ranging from isolated, fragmentary bones to nearly complete skeletons of these enormous herbivorous animals. Given the sheer number of specimens, keeping track of what is housed in which institution is paramount to study variability, taxonomy, and consequently geographic and temporal distribution of the various species and genera recognized from the Morrison Formation. In an attempt to facilitate these studies, we have compiled an online spreadsheet intended to combine all the available information on sauropod specimens from collection databases, published literature, and personal observations. These include lists of contents of the specimens, in what institution the material is housed, references mentioning, de...

Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 2010

In the 169 years since Owen named a tooth as Cardiodon, the study of sauropod dinosaurs has gone through several distinct periods. In the early years, a sequence of descriptions of isolated skeletal elements gave rise to a gradually emerging understanding of the animals that would later be known as sauropods. The second phase began in 1871 with Phillips's description of Cetiosaurus oxoniensis, the first reasonably complete sauropod, and continued with the Marsh-Cope Bone Wars and the description of the nearly complete sauropods Camarasaurus and ‘Brontosaurus’ (= Apatosaurus). As these and other genera became better known, a third phase began, exploring not just the remains but the lives of these giants, with arguments about posture and habitat to the fore, and with the public becoming increasingly aware of sauropods owing to skeletal mounts. A ‘dark age’ followed during and after World War II, with sauropods considered uninteresting evolutionary dead ends and largely ignored. Th...

Morphological changes in the ontogeny of sauropods are poorly known, making difficult to establish the systematic affinities of very young individuals. New information on an almost complete juvenile sauropod (SMA 0009) with an estimated total length of about 2 m, is here presented. The specimen was described as a diplodocid due to the presence of some putative synapomorphies of this group. However, recent further preparation revealed the absence of diplodocid characters and the presence of macronarian derived characters. In order to test the affinities of this specimen a phylogenetic analysis was conducted. The strict consensus tree recovers the specimen as a basal titanosauriform, in an unresolved relation with Brachiosaurus and Giraffatitan. Nevertheless, a brachiosaurid assignment is here suggested in base of the widely accepted monophyly of this group (only recovered when SMA 0009 is placed within this group). Although the existence of a new taxon cannot be completely ruled out, the combination of derived and plesiomorphic characters in the specimen suggest its assignment to Brachiosaurus. Sixteen extra steps are needed to place this specimen within Diplodocidae. The high cost to place this specimen within this group is due to the fact that several diplodocid characters are absent in SMA 0009, such as the absence of divided centroprezygapophyseal lamina in cervical vertebrae, procoelous anterior caudal centra, composed lateral lamina in anterior caudal vertebrae, elongated middle caudal vertebrae, short cervical ribs, and caudolateral projection of distal condyle of metatarsal I. Finally, the systematic position reveals few major ontogenetic transformations. These affect the pneumatic structures (e.g. change from simple pleurocoels in the cervical vertebrae to complex pleurocoels and the development of lateral excavations in the dorsal vertebrae) but also include unrecorded transformations of the neural spine (e.g. the development of the spinodiapophyseal lamina, the widening of the neural spines in the dorsal vertebrae) and allometric growth in some limb bones.

2006

Copeia, 2007

Sauropod dinosaurs were the largest animals ever to walk the earth, and they represent a substantial portion of vertebrate biomass and biodiversity during the Mesozoic Era. The story of sauropod evolution

2000. Osteology, paleobiology, and relationships of the sauropod dinosaur Sauroposeidon. -Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 45,4, 343-388.

2000

ships of the sauropod dinosaur Sauroposeidon.-Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 45,4,

In the summer of 1878, American paleontologist Edward Drinker Cope published the discovery of a sauropod dinosaur that he named Amphicoelias fragillimus. What distinguishes A. fragillimus in the annals of paleontology is the immense magnitude of the skeletal material. The single incomplete dorsal vertebra as reported by Cope was a meter and a half in height, which when fully reconstructed, would make A. fragillimus the largest vertebrate ever. After this initial description Cope never mentioned A. fragillimus in any of his scientific works for the remainder of his life. More than four decades after its description, a scientific survey at the American Museum of Natural History dedicated to the sauropods collected by Cope failed to locate the remains or whereabouts of A. fragillimus. For nearly a century the remains have yet to resurface. The enormous size of the specimen has generally been accepted despite being well beyond the size of even the largest sauropods known from verifiable...

Finding the right fingering for Paganini's guitar works helps understand his view of the guitar, and by extension, his view of the violin. The guitar Sonatas, youthful works, are a learning journal.