Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!

We’ve touched on this several times in various posts and comment threads, but it’s worth taking a moment to think in detail about the various published mass estimates for the single specimen MB.R.2181 (formerly known as HMN SII), the paralectotype of Giraffatitan brancai , which is the basis of the awesome mounted skeleton in Berlin.

As promised, some thoughts on the various new brachiosaur mass estimates in recent papers and blog-posts. Back in 2008, when I did the GDI of Giraffatitan and Brachiosaurus for my 2009 paper on those genera, I came out with estimates of 28688 and 23337 kg respectively. At the time I said to Matt that I was suspicious of those numbers because they seemed too low.

Way back in November 2011, I got this inquiry from Keiron Pim: I replied at the time, and said that I’d post that response here on SV-POW!. But one thing and another prevented me from getting around to it, and I forgot all about it until recently. Since we’re currently in a sequence of Brachiosaurus -themed posts [part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6], this seems like a good time to fix that.

Continuing with what seems to have turned out to be Brachiosaur Humerus Week here on SV-POW! (part 1, part 2, part 3), let’s consider the oft-stated idea that brachiosaurs have the most slender humeri of any sauropod.

The rest of the series. References Janensch, Werner.  1950.  Die Wirbelsaule von Brachiosaurus brancai .  Palaeontographica (Suppl. 7) 3: 27-93. Wedel, M.J., and Sanders, R.K. 2002.

As a break from photography posts, here are four pretty big vertebrae that swirl in the same thought-space in my head. All are shown to scale, in right lateral view.

This whole section, including the title, is mostly swiped from Mike’s Tutorial 17. Other posts in this series are here. Papers referenced in these slides: Farke, Andrew A., and Sertich, Joseph J.W. 2013. An abelisauroid theropod dinosaur from the Turonian of Madagascar. PLoS ONE 8(4): e62047. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0062047 [PDF] Taylor, Michael P., Mathew J. Wedel and Richard L. Cifelli. 2011.

Let it never be said that we don’t take good care of our commenters. Heck, we’ll even degrade ourselves by blogging about theropods, if that’s what it takes to keep you all happy. Derp dah durr Today’s post is a response to this comment by Dean, asking for lateral view photos of the skull of Giraffatitan . Mike and I did get to spend some quality time with the T1 skull (a.k.a. “Old Toilet-Face”) when we were in Berlin in 2008.

“Look at all the things you’ve done for me Opened up my eyes, Taught me how to see, Notice every tree.” So sings Dot in Move On, the climactic number of Stephen Sondheim’s Pulitzer Prize-winning music Sunday in the Park with George, which on the surface is about the post-impressionist painter Georges Seurat, but turns […]