Post by spinosaurus1 on Dec 23, 2014 21:45:28 GMT
173-376-1-SM.pdf
The fragile legacy of Amphicoelias fragillimus (Dinosauria: Sauropoda;
Morrison Formation – latest Jurassic)
D. Cary Woodruff1,2, John R. Foster3
Key words: Amphicoelias fragillimus, E.D. Cope, sauropod, gigantism.
Abstract. 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 fossil material (e.g. Argentinosaurus). By deciphering the ontogenetic change of
Diplodocoidea vertebrae, the science of gigantism, and Cope’s own mannerisms, we conclude that the reported size of A. fragillimus
is most likely an extreme over-estimation.
1 Museum of the Rockies, 600 West Kagy Boulevard, Bozeman, MT, USA 59717
2 Department of Earth Sciences, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT, USA; email: sauropod4@gmail.com
3 Museum of Moab, Moab, UT 84532 USA; email: director@moabmuseum.org
saurs pale in comparative size; thus A. fragillimus could be
the largest dinosaur, and largest vertebrate in Earth’s history
(the Blue Whale being approximately 29 meters long [Reilly
et al., 2008], Fig. 1).
Surviving correspondence and journal entries between
Cope and the collector O. Lucas address the presence and
quarry location of A. fragillimus (McIntosh, 1998; Monaco,
1998; Carpenter, 2006) prior to Cope’s 1878 formal description.
However, at some point between Cope’s 1878 description
and Osborn and Mook’s monograph on the sauropods of
Cope in 1921, the A. fragillimus holotype material disappeared.
This material was assigned an American Museum of
Natural History collections number when the AMNH acquired
the Cope collection in 1895 (AMNH 5777; McIntosh,
1998), so the specimen apparently survived at least until
INTRODUCTION
Described by Edward Drinker Cope in 1878, the holotype
(and only) specimen of A. fragillimus consisted only of
a distal end of a femur and a partial posterior dorsal neural
arch and spine. What makes A. fragillimus truly unique in all
of dinosaurian paleontology is the reported immense size of
the material. As reported by Cope, the fragmentary posterior
dorsal vertebra of A. fragillimus was 1.5 meters tall, which
when reconstructed resulted in the complete dorsal vertebra
being at least 1.83 meters tall. Later studies based general
proportions of A. fragillimus on those of Diplodocus, resulting
in body length estimates of 58–60 meters (Paul, 1994;
Carpenter, 2006). Since Cope’s report of A. fragillimus, all
other diplodocoids, sauropodomorphs, and all other dino
goint by this questionable judgement of copes measurments of amphicoelias, Cope also wrote no less than 6ft which suggest his reconstruction can't be less than 6ft but why say 6ft if he actually ended up with one almost 8ft tall? you need to cut 3/4s of the centrum of his reconstruction to bring it down to that if 1500mm is the correct number, leaving only 32cm to complete the neural spine, neural arch and centrum
.
according to the paper, there is no longer an Amphicoelias species.
Read more: theworldofanimals.proboards.com/thread/114/largest-sauropods?page=32#ixzz3MlA5lahc
The fragile legacy of Amphicoelias fragillimus (Dinosauria: Sauropoda;
Morrison Formation – latest Jurassic)
D. Cary Woodruff1,2, John R. Foster3
Key words: Amphicoelias fragillimus, E.D. Cope, sauropod, gigantism.
Abstract. 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 fossil material (e.g. Argentinosaurus). By deciphering the ontogenetic change of
Diplodocoidea vertebrae, the science of gigantism, and Cope’s own mannerisms, we conclude that the reported size of A. fragillimus
is most likely an extreme over-estimation.
1 Museum of the Rockies, 600 West Kagy Boulevard, Bozeman, MT, USA 59717
2 Department of Earth Sciences, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT, USA; email: sauropod4@gmail.com
3 Museum of Moab, Moab, UT 84532 USA; email: director@moabmuseum.org
saurs pale in comparative size; thus A. fragillimus could be
the largest dinosaur, and largest vertebrate in Earth’s history
(the Blue Whale being approximately 29 meters long [Reilly
et al., 2008], Fig. 1).
Surviving correspondence and journal entries between
Cope and the collector O. Lucas address the presence and
quarry location of A. fragillimus (McIntosh, 1998; Monaco,
1998; Carpenter, 2006) prior to Cope’s 1878 formal description.
However, at some point between Cope’s 1878 description
and Osborn and Mook’s monograph on the sauropods of
Cope in 1921, the A. fragillimus holotype material disappeared.
This material was assigned an American Museum of
Natural History collections number when the AMNH acquired
the Cope collection in 1895 (AMNH 5777; McIntosh,
1998), so the specimen apparently survived at least until
INTRODUCTION
Described by Edward Drinker Cope in 1878, the holotype
(and only) specimen of A. fragillimus consisted only of
a distal end of a femur and a partial posterior dorsal neural
arch and spine. What makes A. fragillimus truly unique in all
of dinosaurian paleontology is the reported immense size of
the material. As reported by Cope, the fragmentary posterior
dorsal vertebra of A. fragillimus was 1.5 meters tall, which
when reconstructed resulted in the complete dorsal vertebra
being at least 1.83 meters tall. Later studies based general
proportions of A. fragillimus on those of Diplodocus, resulting
in body length estimates of 58–60 meters (Paul, 1994;
Carpenter, 2006). Since Cope’s report of A. fragillimus, all
other diplodocoids, sauropodomorphs, and all other dino
goint by this questionable judgement of copes measurments of amphicoelias, Cope also wrote no less than 6ft which suggest his reconstruction can't be less than 6ft but why say 6ft if he actually ended up with one almost 8ft tall? you need to cut 3/4s of the centrum of his reconstruction to bring it down to that if 1500mm is the correct number, leaving only 32cm to complete the neural spine, neural arch and centrum
.
according to the paper, there is no longer an Amphicoelias species.
Read more: theworldofanimals.proboards.com/thread/114/largest-sauropods?page=32#ixzz3MlA5lahc