Western University of Health Sciences

Matt Wedel

[![](https://svpow.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/brian-engh-aug-2024-oklahoma-lectures-1.jpg?w=480){.alignnone
.size-large .wp-image-22618 loading="lazy" attachment-id="22618"
permalink="http://svpow.com/2024/08/21/brian-enghs-free-public-paleoart-lectures-next-week/brian-engh-aug-2024-oklahoma-lectures-1/"
orig-file="https://svpow.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/brian-engh-aug-2024-oklahoma-lectures-1.jpg"
orig-size="1440,1440" comments-opened="1"
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image-title="Brian Engh Aug 2024 Oklahoma lectures 1"
image-description="" image-caption=""
medium-file="https://svpow.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/brian-engh-aug-2024-oklahoma-lectures-1.jpg?w=300"
large-file="https://svpow.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/brian-engh-aug-2024-oklahoma-lectures-1.jpg?w=1024"
tabindex="0" role="button" width="480"
height="480"}](https://svpow.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/brian-engh-aug-2024-oklahoma-lectures-1.jpg)

If you live within striking distance of Norman, Oklahoma, and you have
some time free next Monday and Tuesday, August 26 and 27, and you care
enough about dinosaurs to be on SV-POW! reading this, then I have good
news for you.

[![](https://svpow.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/brian-engh-aug-2024-oklahoma-lectures-2.jpg?w=480){.alignnone
.size-large .wp-image-22619 loading="lazy" attachment-id="22619"
permalink="http://svpow.com/2024/08/21/brian-enghs-free-public-paleoart-lectures-next-week/brian-engh-aug-2024-oklahoma-lectures-2/"
orig-file="https://svpow.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/brian-engh-aug-2024-oklahoma-lectures-2.jpg"
orig-size="797,797" 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="Brian Engh Aug 2024 Oklahoma lectures 2"
image-description="" image-caption=""
medium-file="https://svpow.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/brian-engh-aug-2024-oklahoma-lectures-2.jpg?w=300"
large-file="https://svpow.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/brian-engh-aug-2024-oklahoma-lectures-2.jpg?w=797"
tabindex="0" role="button" width="480"
height="480"}](https://svpow.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/brian-engh-aug-2024-oklahoma-lectures-2.jpg)

From Brian's announcement post on Facebook:

> NEXT WEEK (Mon) I'm visiting the University of Oklahoma's Art
> department to do a live paleoart drawing seminar. We'll be analyzing
> big cool fossils and discussing comparative anatomy in order to
> reconstruct dinosaurs!
>
> THEN! (Tues) I'm doing a talk at the Sam Noble Museum exploring the
> philosophy of palaeoart and paleontology.
>
> Both events are free and open to the public! Bring your hardest
> questions about what we *really* know about paleontology, paleo
> reconstruction, changing ecosystems, why we explore the depths of deep
> time, and our place in the vast ancient universe we struggle to
> survive in!!!

And as long as you're there, hit the Sam Noble public galleries and say
hi to
*[Aquilops](https://svpow.com/2016/12/21/a-quick-stop-at-the-oklahoma-museum-of-natural-history/),* *[Sauroposeidon](https://svpow.com/2009/12/22/here-comes-santaposeidon/),*
and the [giant Oklahoma
apatosaurine](https://svpow.com/2016/02/27/giant-oklahoma-apatosaurus-mount-from-above/)
for me.

Go have fun!

 

------------------------------------------------------------------------

[doi:10.59350/zrz7j-bdn72](https://doi.org/10.59350/zrz7j-bdn72)


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Brian Engh’s free public paleoart lectures next week!

[![](https://svpow.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/matt-loves-apatosaurus-v2.jpg?w=480){.size-large
.wp-image-22161 .aligncenter loading="lazy" attachment-id="22161"
permalink="http://svpow.com/2024/06/01/its-national-dinosaur-day/matt-loves-apatosaurus-v2/"
orig-file="https://svpow.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/matt-loves-apatosaurus-v2.jpg"
orig-size="769,966" 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="Matt loves Apatosaurus v2" image-description=""
image-caption=""
medium-file="https://svpow.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/matt-loves-apatosaurus-v2.jpg?w=239"
large-file="https://svpow.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/matt-loves-apatosaurus-v2.jpg?w=769"
width="480"
height="603"}](https://svpow.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/matt-loves-apatosaurus-v2.jpg)

Show your love!

 

------------------------------------------------------------------------

[doi:10.59350/c7w28-hg981](https://doi.org/10.59350/c7w28-hg981)


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It’s National Dinosaur Day

I was in Oklahoma and Texas last week, seeing Sauroposeidon, Paluxysaurus, Astrophocaudia, and Alamosaurus, at the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History, the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History, the Shuler Museum of Paleontology at SMU, and the Perot Museum of Nature and Science, respectively.

[![Sauroposeidon meet
Sauroposeidon](https://svpow.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/sauroposeidon-meet-sauroposeidon.jpg?w=480&h=360){.aligncenter
.size-full .wp-image-10112 loading="lazy" attachment-id="10112"
permalink="http://svpow.com/2014/04/18/sauroposeidon-in-3d/sauroposeidon-meet-sauroposeidon/"
orig-file="https://svpow.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/sauroposeidon-meet-sauroposeidon.jpg"
orig-size="2816,2112" comments-opened="1"
image-meta="{\"aperture\":\"2.2\",\"credit\":\"\",\"camera\":\"Canon PowerShot S100\",\"caption\":\"\",\"created_timestamp\":\"1397217837\",\"copyright\":\"\",\"focal_length\":\"5.684\",\"iso\":\"250\",\"shutter_speed\":\"0.033333333333333\",\"title\":\"\"}"
image-title="Sauroposeidon meet Sauroposeidon" image-description=""
image-caption=""
medium-file="https://svpow.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/sauroposeidon-meet-sauroposeidon.jpg?w=300"
large-file="https://svpow.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/sauroposeidon-meet-sauroposeidon.jpg?w=1024"
width="480" height="360"
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sizes="(max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px"}](http://svpow.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/sauroposeidon-meet-sauroposeidon.jpg)

I was in Oklahoma and Texas last week, seeing *Sauroposeidon*,
*Paluxysaurus*, *Astrophocaudia*, and *Alamosaurus*, at the [Sam Noble
Oklahoma Museum of Natural History](http://www.snomnh.ou.edu/),
the [Fort Worth Museum of Science and
History](http://www.fwmuseum.org/), the [Shuler Museum of Paleontology
at SMU](http://smu.edu/shulermuseum/default.html), and the [Perot Museum
of Nature and Science](http://www.perotmuseum.org/), respectively. I
have a ton of interesting things from that trip that I could blog about,
but unfortunately I have *no time*. Ten days from now, I'm off to
Colorado and Utah for the [Mid-Mesozoic conference and field
trip](http://www.utahpaleo.org/mid-mesozoic-conference.html), and
between now and then I need to finish up my bits on three collaborative
papers, get my summer anatomy lectures posted for internal peer review
here at WesternU, and--oh yeah--actually write my conference talk. Fun
times.

BUT after being subjected to the horror of the [Yale *Brontosaurus*
skull](http://svpow.com/2014/04/15/horrible-sauropod-skulls-of-the-yale-peabody-museum-part-2-brontosaurus-and-no-i-do-not-mean-apatosaurus/),
I figured you all deserved a little awesome.

[![Photographing Sauroposeidon
2014-04-07](https://svpow.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/photographing-sauroposeidon-2014-04-07.jpg?w=480&h=640){.aligncenter
.size-full .wp-image-10106 loading="lazy" attachment-id="10106"
permalink="http://svpow.com/2014/04/18/sauroposeidon-in-3d/photographing-sauroposeidon-2014-04-07/"
orig-file="https://svpow.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/photographing-sauroposeidon-2014-04-07.jpg"
orig-size="2448,3264" comments-opened="1"
image-meta="{\"aperture\":\"2.4\",\"credit\":\"\",\"camera\":\"iPhone 5\",\"caption\":\"\",\"created_timestamp\":\"1396877756\",\"copyright\":\"\",\"focal_length\":\"4.12\",\"iso\":\"80\",\"shutter_speed\":\"0.05\",\"title\":\"\",\"latitude\":\"35.194855555556\",\"longitude\":\"-97.449141666667\"}"
image-title="Photographing Sauroposeidon 2014-04-07"
image-description="" image-caption=""
medium-file="https://svpow.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/photographing-sauroposeidon-2014-04-07.jpg?w=225"
large-file="https://svpow.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/photographing-sauroposeidon-2014-04-07.jpg?w=768"
width="480" height="640"
srcset="https://svpow.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/photographing-sauroposeidon-2014-04-07.jpg?w=480&h=640 480w, https://svpow.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/photographing-sauroposeidon-2014-04-07.jpg?w=960&h=1280 960w, https://svpow.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/photographing-sauroposeidon-2014-04-07.jpg?w=113&h=150 113w, https://svpow.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/photographing-sauroposeidon-2014-04-07.jpg?w=225&h=300 225w, https://svpow.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/photographing-sauroposeidon-2014-04-07.jpg?w=768&h=1024 768w"
sizes="(max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px"}](http://svpow.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/photographing-sauroposeidon-2014-04-07.jpg)

So here's me getting one of 351 photos of the most posterior and largest
of the *Sauroposeidon* jackets (this is not the awesome, BTW, just a
stop along the way). This jacket holds what I [once
inferred](http://svpow.com/2008/07/24/the-enigmatic-taphonomy-of-sauroposeidon/)
to be the back half of C7 and all of C8. Now that *Sauroposeidon* may be
a
[somphospondyl](http://svpow.com/2012/09/05/hot-sauropod-news-part-2-a-new-look-for-sauroposeidon/)
rather than a brachiosaur, who knows what verts these are--basal
somphospondyls have up to 17 cervicals to brachiosaurids' probable 13
(for a hypothetical view of an even-longer-necked *Sauroposeidon*, see
[this probably-prophetic
post](http://svpow.com/2009/08/07/how-tallweird-was-sauroposeidon/) by
Mike). The vertically-mounted skeleton in the background is
*Cotylorhynchus*. *Cotylorhynchus* got a lot bigger than that--up to
maybe 6 meters long and 2 or 3 tons--and was probably the [largest land
animal that had ever
existed](http://drvector.blogspot.com/2007/07/largest-land-animal-of-all-time.html) back
in the Early Permian. Photo by OU grad student Andrew Thomas, whom
you'll be hearing about more here in the future.

I couldn't crank the model myself on the road, thanks to the pathetic
lack of processing power in my 6-year-old laptop (which will be replaced
RSN). Andy Farke volunteered to do the photogrammetricizing with Agisoft
Photoscan, if only I'd DropBox him the pictures. Here's a screenshot
from MeshLab showing the result:

[![Sauroposeidon lateral PLY 10 - 6 and 9
blended](https://svpow.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/sauroposeidon-lateral-ply-10-6-and-9-blended.jpg?w=480&h=384){.aligncenter
.size-full .wp-image-10108 loading="lazy" attachment-id="10108"
permalink="http://svpow.com/2014/04/18/sauroposeidon-in-3d/sauroposeidon-lateral-ply-10-6-and-9-blended/"
orig-file="https://svpow.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/sauroposeidon-lateral-ply-10-6-and-9-blended.jpg"
orig-size="1280,1024" comments-opened="1"
image-meta="{\"aperture\":\"0\",\"credit\":\"\",\"camera\":\"\",\"caption\":\"\",\"created_timestamp\":\"0\",\"copyright\":\"\",\"focal_length\":\"0\",\"iso\":\"0\",\"shutter_speed\":\"0\",\"title\":\"\"}"
image-title="Sauroposeidon lateral PLY 10 – 6 and 9 blended"
image-description="" image-caption=""
medium-file="https://svpow.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/sauroposeidon-lateral-ply-10-6-and-9-blended.jpg?w=300"
large-file="https://svpow.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/sauroposeidon-lateral-ply-10-6-and-9-blended.jpg?w=1024"
width="480" height="384"
srcset="https://svpow.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/sauroposeidon-lateral-ply-10-6-and-9-blended.jpg?w=480&h=384 480w, https://svpow.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/sauroposeidon-lateral-ply-10-6-and-9-blended.jpg?w=960&h=768 960w, https://svpow.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/sauroposeidon-lateral-ply-10-6-and-9-blended.jpg?w=150&h=120 150w, https://svpow.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/sauroposeidon-lateral-ply-10-6-and-9-blended.jpg?w=300&h=240 300w, https://svpow.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/sauroposeidon-lateral-ply-10-6-and-9-blended.jpg?w=768&h=614 768w"
sizes="(max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px"}](http://svpow.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/sauroposeidon-lateral-ply-10-6-and-9-blended.jpg)

And my best taken-from-overhead
[quasi-lateral](http://svpow.com/2014/01/29/sauroposeidon-in-perspective-too-much-perspective/)
photograph:

[![Sauroposeidon C8 jacket lateral photo
2014-04-07](https://svpow.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/sauroposeidon-c8-jacket-lateral-photo-2014-04-07.jpg?w=480&h=245){.aligncenter
.size-full .wp-image-10110 loading="lazy" attachment-id="10110"
permalink="http://svpow.com/2014/04/18/sauroposeidon-in-3d/sauroposeidon-c8-jacket-lateral-photo-2014-04-07/"
orig-file="https://svpow.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/sauroposeidon-c8-jacket-lateral-photo-2014-04-07.jpg"
orig-size="2756,1408" comments-opened="1"
image-meta="{\"aperture\":\"2.8\",\"credit\":\"\",\"camera\":\"Canon PowerShot S100\",\"caption\":\"\",\"created_timestamp\":\"1396870225\",\"copyright\":\"\",\"focal_length\":\"7.16\",\"iso\":\"400\",\"shutter_speed\":\"0.033333333333333\",\"title\":\"\"}"
image-title="Sauroposeidon C8 jacket lateral photo 2014-04-07"
image-description="" image-caption=""
medium-file="https://svpow.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/sauroposeidon-c8-jacket-lateral-photo-2014-04-07.jpg?w=300"
large-file="https://svpow.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/sauroposeidon-c8-jacket-lateral-photo-2014-04-07.jpg?w=1024"
width="480" height="245"
srcset="https://svpow.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/sauroposeidon-c8-jacket-lateral-photo-2014-04-07.jpg?w=480&h=245 480w, https://svpow.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/sauroposeidon-c8-jacket-lateral-photo-2014-04-07.jpg?w=960&h=490 960w, https://svpow.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/sauroposeidon-c8-jacket-lateral-photo-2014-04-07.jpg?w=150&h=77 150w, https://svpow.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/sauroposeidon-c8-jacket-lateral-photo-2014-04-07.jpg?w=300&h=153 300w, https://svpow.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/sauroposeidon-c8-jacket-lateral-photo-2014-04-07.jpg?w=768&h=392 768w"
sizes="(max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px"}](http://svpow.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/sauroposeidon-c8-jacket-lateral-photo-2014-04-07.jpg)

If you're curious, the meter stick at the top is actually one meter
long, it just has the English measurement side showing. The giant
caliper at the bottom is also marked off in inches, and it is open to
36.0 inches (it didn't go to 1 meter, or I would have used that). You
can tell that there is some perspective distortion involved here since
36 inches on the caliper is 1380 pixels, whereas the 39.4-inch meter
stick is only 1341 pixels. Man, I hate scale bars. But they make good
calibration targets.

Incidentally, after playing around with the model in orthographic mode
in MeshLab, the distortions in the photos of the vertebrae themselves
just scream at me. Finally, *finally*, I can escape the tyranny of
perspective. Compare the ends of the big wooden beam at the top of the
jacket to get a feel for how much the two views differ.

Working on *Sauroposeidon* again after all this time made me seriously
nostalgic. I love that beast. I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say
that those vertebrae are the most gorgeous physical objects in the
universe. Also, an appropriately huge thank-you to preparator Kyle
Davies (of [apatosaur-sculpting
fame](http://svpow.com/2013/09/09/self-study-the-atlas-axis-complex-in-sauropods/)),
collections manager Jen Larsen, and Andrew Thomas again for help with
wrassling those verts around, and for sharing their thoughts and advice.
Thanks also to curators Rich Cifelli and Nick Czaplewski for their
hospitality and for the go-ahead to undertake this work, and to Andy
Farke for generating the model.

I'll have a lot more to say about this stuff in the future. I didn't go
to all this work just for giggles. For a long time I've had a hankering
to do a paper on the detailed anatomy of *Sauroposeidon*, based on all
of the things that I've noticed in the last decade that didn't make it
into any of the early papers. And now there's the [proposed
synonymy](http://svpow.com/2012/09/05/hot-sauropod-news-part-2-a-new-look-for-sauroposeidon/)
of *Paluxysaurus* with *Sauroposeidon*. And
"[Angloposeidon](http://svpow.com/?s=angloposeidon)" needs some
attention--Darren and I have been thinking about writing "Angloposeidon
II" for years now. And...well, plenty more.

So, loads more to come, but not for the next few weeks. Eventually I'll
be publishing all of this--the photos, the 3D models, the whole works.
Stay tuned.

**UPDATE a few days later**

Man, I *am* frazzled, because I forgot to include the moral of the
story: **if I can do this, you can do this**. There are good, free
photogrammetry programs out there--Peter Falkingham published a  [whole
paper](http://palaeo-electronica.org/content/issue1-2012technical-articles/92-3d-photogrammetry)
on free photogrammetry in 2012, and posted a
[guide](https://www.academia.edu/3649828/Generating_a_Photogrammetric_model_using_VisualSFM_and_post-processing_with_Meshlab)
to an even better program, VisualSFM, on Academia.edu. Even Agisoft
Photoscan is not prohibitively expensive--under \$200 for an educational
license. MeshLab is free and has hordes of good free tutorials. For the
photography itself, you basically just build a virtual dome of photos
around an object. If you need more instructions than that, Heinrich has
written a [whole series of
tutorials](http://dinosaurpalaeo.wordpress.com/category/photogrammetry/).
It doesn't take a fancy camera--I used a point-and-shoot for the
*Sauroposeidon* work shown here (a Canon S100 operating at 6 megapixels,
if anyone is curious). What are you waiting for?


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Messaggi di Rogue Scholar

Brian Engh’s free public paleoart lectures next week!

It’s National Dinosaur Day

Sauroposeidon in 3D