Haplocanthosaurus MWC 8028, with Bernie for scale
January 23, 2021
Can I really be the first one to have done this? Seems unlikely. Sing out in the comments if you’ve seen others.
Anyway, folks, here’s your new all-purpose scale silhouette. Useful fact: the standard metal folding chairs found from sea to shining sea are 29.25 inches tall, or 0.75 meters. Bernie might be in a plastic folding chair here, I dunno, I’m no expert. But folding chair seats are typically 16-17 inches off the ground, so it can’t be that far out.
Who will get Bernie into print first?
Sauropod Vertebra Picture of the Week 
January 23, 2021 at 2:47 pm
I know of one other on its way…
January 23, 2021 at 6:27 pm
Is that truly all we have of Haplo?
January 23, 2021 at 10:41 pm
Shouldn’t we be lighting up the bones in Bernie, too?
January 24, 2021 at 1:46 am
Dale, no, it’s just all we have of this specimen. The Carnegie specimens are more complete. You can see the vertebral column of CM 879 in Figure 10 in my 2009 air sac paper. And the Bilbey haplocanthosaur, which is on display at the Utah Field House Museum in Vernal, is almost entirely complete, missing only the skull (natch), but it’s undescribed. A description has been rumored to be in the works for almost two decades now. I should post some photos of the bones on exhibit.
Nathan, several answers came to mind, so you’re getting all of them:
1. I haven’t studied Bernie so I’m unfamiliar with his anatomy. Could be cartilaginous for all I know.
2. More seriously, we typically don’t light up the bones in the for-scale humans that we put into skeletal silhouettes.
3. But be my guest!
January 24, 2021 at 6:19 am
“Bernie! Watch out, it’s about to step on you!”
January 24, 2021 at 6:22 am
(Course, Bernie might not mind so much if he’s really cartilaginous – but that seems really unlikely at his age.)
January 25, 2021 at 6:12 am
I prefer to imagine that Bernie sits unruffled as Haplocanthosaurus passes by in review.