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Re: Seismosaurus



>There is a new book due out soon devoted to 
>Seismosurus and its discovery called
>Seismosaurus The Earth Shaker (I think!). Its by
>David Gillette, with illustrations by Mark Hallett.
>My bookstore says June 1 for shipping date.
>                   Heather Whitehead (hw@mts.rpi.edu)

Does this mean that excavation (and reconstruction) of Seismosaurus is
complete? I saw something about it (on Nova?) about a year ago and my
understanding was that because of the unusually hard rock that it is
fossilized in, that it would take several years to excavate it. Then I
assumed it would take another 2 years for reconstruction (again because of
the very hard rock and the shear size of the mount). Or have they jumped the
gun by drawing conclusions about the animal before excavation is even
complete?

>Ultrasaurus and Supersaurus were named for remains from
>the Dry Mesa Quarry in Colorado,  mostly Jim Jensen's
>work. To the bst of my knowledge, writeups on these are
>fairly limited so far. I seem to recall discussion they may
>represent large individuals of known species, but its still   
>an open issue.
>                   Heather Whitehead (hw@mts.rpi.edu)

>I'm a curious amateur dinosaur fan.  I seem to recall a news item back a 
>few years now that announced the discovery of some really huge bones that 
>indicated a sauropod much larger than any perviously known.  If memory 
>serves, the names ultrasaur and seismosaur were used.  I don't recall 
>having heard any follow up since then.  Could anybody bring me up to 
>speed on the status of these animals?
>                   Joe Sexton (JOE@SEXTON.MHS.COMPUSERVE.COM)

I thought that all that was found of Ultrasaurus was a single leg bone, which
is not enough to determine whether or not it deserves a separate genus, or even
a separate species. It may just be an unusually large specimen of Brachiosaurus
(or Seismosaurus?).

Scott Horton
Geophysicist/Computer Programmer