Bonus post: Sauroposeidon illustrated
August 14, 2008
Since my last post was rather heavier on the sushi than on the sauropod vertebrae, I offer this special bonus post. One of the frustrating things about the otherwise marvelous Sauroposeidon monograph (Wedel et al. 2000b) is that the figures are so small. Sadly this is also true of all the other publications that illustrate its remains, and so the published literature has no nice, detailed images.
No longer! I’ve scored a rare paper copy of Matt’s undergraduate thesis (Wedel 1997) which contained basically all the material that eventually became that monograph, and which in addition has much larger versions of the figures. So without further ado, I give you figure 5 of that paper:
Part A is similar to Wedel et al. (2000b:fig 6), and part B to Wedel et al. (2000b:fig. 7A), but this older version is rather nicer, and from a waaay better scan than is available for Wedel et al. (2000b).
And that’s all I have to say about that.
References.
- Wedel, Mathew J. 1997. A new sauropod from the Early Cretaceous of Oklahoma. Unpublished undergraduate thesis, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK. 43 pages.
- Wedel, M.J., Cifelli, R.L., and Sanders, R.K. 2000b. Osteology, paleobiology, and relationships of the sauropod dinosaur Sauroposeidon. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 45(4):343-388
Sauropod Vertebra Picture of the Week 
August 14, 2008 at 5:42 pm
Sauropod Vertebra Picture of the Week is still the awesomest site on the whole interweb. Anyone being paid to display awesomeness probably should give up and go to work at Wal-mart, because they’ll simply never match it.
August 17, 2008 at 1:07 pm
SV-POW! has been nominated for a “very prestigious and totally serious award”. Just thought you’d like to know.
August 21, 2008 at 7:00 pm
Mike,
I was wondering what you think about the neck posture in Sauroposeidon? Or possible in other brachiosaurs? My main point is, does the anatomy in sauropod necks really preclude a semi-upright posture versus a horizontal posture? I know there have been lots of studies published by Kent Stevens and Paul Upchurch and others as well as more informal work (at least the stuff that I am acquainted with) by Tracy Ford and Greg Paul, and they often lead to different conclusions, so I was wondering what a sauropod expert thinks about this?
August 21, 2008 at 7:41 pm
Hey, Zach.
I’d like to talk about this, but I think it’s better if I ask you to wait for Wedel, Naish and Taylor 2008 :-) (Or maybe it’ll be 2009 by then.)
August 21, 2008 at 7:55 pm
Haha. Okay….I hope I don’t go insane waiting for it, then ;)
August 25, 2008 at 6:48 pm
That’s never a C6 from anything. Matt got caught doodling spaceships in class and passed it of as a vertebra and since then has had to stick to it so as to not embarrass his prof who took it at face value.
January 29, 2014 at 2:01 am
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