Western University of Health Sciences

Matt Wedel

[![](https://svpow.files.wordpress.com/2023/05/prehistoric-museum-sectioned-allosaurus-vertebra.jpg?w=480){.size-large
.wp-image-20922 .aligncenter loading="lazy" attachment-id="20922"
permalink="http://svpow.com/2023/05/25/two-nice-pneumatic-allosaurus-vertebrae/prehistoric-museum-sectioned-allosaurus-vertebra/"
orig-file="https://svpow.files.wordpress.com/2023/05/prehistoric-museum-sectioned-allosaurus-vertebra.jpg"
orig-size="4032,3024" comments-opened="1"
image-meta="{\"aperture\":\"0\",\"credit\":\"\",\"camera\":\"\",\"caption\":\"\",\"created_timestamp\":\"0\",\"copyright\":\"\",\"focal_length\":\"0\",\"iso\":\"0\",\"shutter_speed\":\"0\",\"title\":\"\",\"orientation\":\"0\"}"
image-title="Prehistoric Museum – sectioned Allosaurus vertebra"
image-description="" image-caption=""
medium-file="https://svpow.files.wordpress.com/2023/05/prehistoric-museum-sectioned-allosaurus-vertebra.jpg?w=300"
large-file="https://svpow.files.wordpress.com/2023/05/prehistoric-museum-sectioned-allosaurus-vertebra.jpg?w=1024"
width="480" height="360"
srcset="https://svpow.files.wordpress.com/2023/05/prehistoric-museum-sectioned-allosaurus-vertebra.jpg?w=480 480w, https://svpow.files.wordpress.com/2023/05/prehistoric-museum-sectioned-allosaurus-vertebra.jpg?w=960 960w, https://svpow.files.wordpress.com/2023/05/prehistoric-museum-sectioned-allosaurus-vertebra.jpg?w=150 150w, https://svpow.files.wordpress.com/2023/05/prehistoric-museum-sectioned-allosaurus-vertebra.jpg?w=300 300w, https://svpow.files.wordpress.com/2023/05/prehistoric-museum-sectioned-allosaurus-vertebra.jpg?w=768 768w"
sizes="(max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px"}](https://svpow.files.wordpress.com/2023/05/prehistoric-museum-sectioned-allosaurus-vertebra.jpg)

I spent last week bombing around Utah and western Colorado with Dave
Hone, who was over from England to visit those states for the first time
in his life. We did some fieldwork out at [Brachiosaur
Gulch](https://svpow.com/2020/01/30/at-last-it-can-be-told-we-found-a-big-brachiosaurus-in-the-salt-wash/)
and visited quite a few museums and quarries around the Dinosaur
Diamond, in a sort of mini-recapitulation of my [2016
Sauropocalypse](https://svpow.com/category/travel/sauropocalypse-2016/)
with Mike. It was a fun and rewarding trip and there will hopefully be
more posts on it forthcoming, but for now I'm going to play against type
and keep this as short and focused as I can.

[![](https://svpow.files.wordpress.com/2023/05/prehistoric-museum-pneumaticity-and-bird-breathing.jpg?w=480){.size-large
.wp-image-20924 .aligncenter loading="lazy" attachment-id="20924"
permalink="http://svpow.com/2023/05/25/two-nice-pneumatic-allosaurus-vertebrae/prehistoric-museum-pneumaticity-and-bird-breathing/"
orig-file="https://svpow.files.wordpress.com/2023/05/prehistoric-museum-pneumaticity-and-bird-breathing.jpg"
orig-size="4032,3024" comments-opened="1"
image-meta="{\"aperture\":\"0\",\"credit\":\"\",\"camera\":\"\",\"caption\":\"\",\"created_timestamp\":\"0\",\"copyright\":\"\",\"focal_length\":\"0\",\"iso\":\"0\",\"shutter_speed\":\"0\",\"title\":\"\",\"orientation\":\"0\"}"
image-title="Prehistoric Museum – pneumaticity and bird breathing"
image-description="" image-caption=""
medium-file="https://svpow.files.wordpress.com/2023/05/prehistoric-museum-pneumaticity-and-bird-breathing.jpg?w=300"
large-file="https://svpow.files.wordpress.com/2023/05/prehistoric-museum-pneumaticity-and-bird-breathing.jpg?w=1024"
width="480" height="360"
srcset="https://svpow.files.wordpress.com/2023/05/prehistoric-museum-pneumaticity-and-bird-breathing.jpg?w=480 480w, https://svpow.files.wordpress.com/2023/05/prehistoric-museum-pneumaticity-and-bird-breathing.jpg?w=960 960w, https://svpow.files.wordpress.com/2023/05/prehistoric-museum-pneumaticity-and-bird-breathing.jpg?w=150 150w, https://svpow.files.wordpress.com/2023/05/prehistoric-museum-pneumaticity-and-bird-breathing.jpg?w=300 300w, https://svpow.files.wordpress.com/2023/05/prehistoric-museum-pneumaticity-and-bird-breathing.jpg?w=768 768w"
sizes="(max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px"}](https://svpow.files.wordpress.com/2023/05/prehistoric-museum-pneumaticity-and-bird-breathing.jpg)

The Prehistoric Museum in Price had added a fair number of new exhibits
since Mike and I [visited back in
2016](https://svpow.com/2016/05/07/matts-adventures-in-the-camarasaurus-pit/),
including this nice display on pneumaticity and [respiration in
birds](https://svpow.com/2022/02/03/how-birds-breathe-in-184-words/) and
other dinos. I was quite taken with it because I've seen some nice
examples of cut and polished sauropod vertebrae (like [this
one](https://svpow.com/2008/03/12/the-heart-of-the-matter/) and [this
one](https://svpow.com/2019/11/11/the-other-side-of-the-other-side-of-that-one-cool-specimen/)),
but I can't remember ever having seen the same thing done to a theropod
vertebra.

[![](https://svpow.files.wordpress.com/2023/05/nhmu-allosaurus-cast-vertebra.jpg?w=480){.size-large
.wp-image-20925 .aligncenter loading="lazy" attachment-id="20925"
permalink="http://svpow.com/2023/05/25/two-nice-pneumatic-allosaurus-vertebrae/nhmu-allosaurus-cast-vertebra/"
orig-file="https://svpow.files.wordpress.com/2023/05/nhmu-allosaurus-cast-vertebra.jpg"
orig-size="2800,2800" comments-opened="1"
image-meta="{\"aperture\":\"0\",\"credit\":\"\",\"camera\":\"\",\"caption\":\"\",\"created_timestamp\":\"0\",\"copyright\":\"\",\"focal_length\":\"0\",\"iso\":\"0\",\"shutter_speed\":\"0\",\"title\":\"\",\"orientation\":\"0\"}"
image-title="NHMU – Allosaurus cast vertebra" image-description=""
image-caption=""
medium-file="https://svpow.files.wordpress.com/2023/05/nhmu-allosaurus-cast-vertebra.jpg?w=300"
large-file="https://svpow.files.wordpress.com/2023/05/nhmu-allosaurus-cast-vertebra.jpg?w=1024"
width="480" height="480"
srcset="https://svpow.files.wordpress.com/2023/05/nhmu-allosaurus-cast-vertebra.jpg?w=480 480w, https://svpow.files.wordpress.com/2023/05/nhmu-allosaurus-cast-vertebra.jpg?w=960 960w, https://svpow.files.wordpress.com/2023/05/nhmu-allosaurus-cast-vertebra.jpg?w=150 150w, https://svpow.files.wordpress.com/2023/05/nhmu-allosaurus-cast-vertebra.jpg?w=300 300w, https://svpow.files.wordpress.com/2023/05/nhmu-allosaurus-cast-vertebra.jpg?w=768 768w"
sizes="(max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px"}](https://svpow.files.wordpress.com/2023/05/nhmu-allosaurus-cast-vertebra.jpg)

Near the end of Dave's visit we hit the Natural History Museum of Utah
in Salt Lake, and I spotted this cast of an *Allosaurus* dorsal vertebra
in the gift shop. I thought it looked awfully familiar, and sure enough,
it's a slightly restored version of MWC 5818, which you may remember
from [this
post](https://svpow.com/2019/10/12/a-nice-pneumatic-allosaurus-cervical/).
It's an anterior dorsal of *Allosaurus* with the front of the centrum
eroded away to show the internal chambers. The specimen is now available
as a cast from [Gaston
Design](https://gastondesign.com/product/allosaurus-vertebrae/), which
is how it came to be in the NHMU gift shop.

I have a lot more I want to blog about, but I'm just digging out from
having been out of town for most of the past two months. Further
bulletins when I get the time and energy, I reckon.


{.size-large .wp-image-20922 .aligncenter loading=“lazy” attachment-id=“20922” permalink=“http://svpow.com/2023/05/25/two-nice-pneumatic-allosaurus-vertebrae/prehistoric-museum-sectioned-allosaurus-vertebra/” orig-file=“https://svpow.files.wordpress.com/2023/05/prehistoric-museum-sectioned-allosaurus-vertebra.jpg” orig-size=“4032,3024” comments-opened=“1”

Rogue Scholar Posts

Two nice pneumatic Allosaurus vertebrae