Last time, we reviewed what’s known about Jensen’s three giant sauropods based on published papers (and one abstract). This time, I want to talk a bit about what Matt and I have discovered, and intend to publish when we get around to it. The Three Baro Jacket It all followed on from our work on Barosaurus (which for now remains available only as a preprint, becalmed as it is in the peer-review doldrums — mostly my fault). Because of

An important paper is out today: Carpenter (2018) names Maraapunisaurus , a new genus to contain the species “ Amphicoelias ” fragillimus , on the basis that it’s actually a rebbachisaurid rather than being closely related to the type species Amphicoelias altus . {.size-full .wp-image-15433 aria-describedby=“caption-attachment-15433” loading=“lazy” attachment-id=“15433”

As Matt recently noted, we both have a ton of photos from various expeditions that we’ve never got around to posting — not to mention a ton of specimens that we’ve seen but never got around to working on. Here is one of the most exciting: {.alignnone .size-full .wp-image-14594 loading=“lazy” attachment-id=“14594” permalink=“http://svpow.com/2017/12/31/the-giant-brachiosaur-cervical-of-arches-national-park/2016-05-10-10-39-21-cropped/”

Here is a vertebra that Matt and I saw on our recent travels through Utah: {.alignnone .size-full .wp-image-13531 loading=“lazy” attachment-id=“13531” permalink=“http://svpow.com/2016/05/25/an-sv-pow-challenge-what-is-this-vertebra/img_2530/” orig-file=“https://svpow.files.wordpress.com/2016/05/img_2530.jpg” orig-size=“4000,3000” comments-opened=“1” image-meta=“{"aperture":"3.5","credit":"","camera":"Canon PowerShot

Re-reading an email that Matt sent me back in January, I see this: (For anyone not familiar with the the “wiper”, it refers to a short paper of only one or two pages. The etymology is left as an exercise to the reader.) It’s just amazing how we keep on and on falling for this delusion that we can get a paper out quickly, even when we know perfectly well , going into the project, that it’s not going to work out that way.

Suppose you’re working on a Wealden sauropod — for example, the disturbingly Camarasaurus -like isolated dorsal vertebra NHM R2523 — and for some reason you desperately want to publish your work in Cretaceous Research . But it’s published by Elsevier, which means that if you’re committed to open access, you have to find an exorbitant $3300 for the APC.

From the collections of the American Museum of Natural History, I give you the sacrum and fused ilia of “ Apatosaurus ” minimus AMNH 675, as correctly identified by Steve P in a comment to the previous post: As Steve P rightly pointed out, AMNH 675 was designated as Brontosaurus sp. by Osborn (1904), and made the type of Apatosaurus minimus by Mook (1917). It’s been known for some time that whatever this is,

Sorry to have written so much about publishing politics recently, and so little about sauropod vertebrae!  That stuff is important, and I give you fair warning I will be returning to it soon.

Was this just a half-lame attempt to fulfill our titular mandate whilst plugging my new astronomy blog? Of course it was (and I just did it again!). Doesn’t mean you lot are off the hook for figuring out what it is. So here’s another image with more views. You have a week. Don’t let me down. Oh, and to sweeten the pot, 351 SV-POW!bucks to the person who first figures it out. UPDATE: Too late, suckers!

I’ve been interested in astronomy my whole life, but I only got serious about it in the past two years. In the internet age, “getting serious” about something usually means “starting a blog”, so I did. My aim is to show people that enjoying the night sky doesn’t have to be time-consuming or expensive.