Apatosaurus louisae: shooting from the hip
April 30, 2022
Here at SV-POW! Towers, we like to show you iconic mounted skeletons from unusual perspectives. Here’s one:
Apatosaurus louisae holotype CM 3018, mounted skeleton in the public gallery of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History: head, neck, torso and hip in right posterolateral view. Photograph by Matt Wedel, 12th March 2019 (my birthday!)
Oh, man, I love that museum. And I love that specimen. And I love the one that’s standing next to it (Diplodocus CM 82, natch.) I’ve got to find a way to get myself back out there.
That’s all: just enjoy.
Sauropod Vertebra Picture of the Week 
April 30, 2022 at 12:30 am
When I toured Carnegie back in the 80s at the SVP, I was absolutely struck by how massive that A. louisae really was. I got a good picture of McIntosh swinging under that animal as if “swooning”. Even when I was underneath the G. brancai in Berlin, I never got the feeling of mass that I did with that sauropod in Carnegie.
April 30, 2022 at 12:39 am
I get that, Dale. Waaay back in maybe 1999, definitely before I’d met Matt and probably before we’d even corresponded, I read a quote from him in an interview on the Web: “Apatosaurus sort of looks like a pro wrestler when most of the other sauropods tend to look like ballerinas”. I think that’s exactly right. Giraffatitan is bigger, but Apatosaurus is so much more solid.
May 3, 2022 at 8:24 am
[…] shown you the Apatosaurus louisae holotype mounted skeleton CM 3018 several times: shot from the hip, posing with another massive vertebrate, photographed from above, and more. Today we bring you a […]