Re: Brachiosaurus and co.

[tidwell@ix.netcom.com]

Tim White asks about Brachiosaurus skulls found in North America:
  One honest - to - goodness Brachiosaurus skull was found in the late 1880's 
in Garden Park, 
Colorado, (Late Jurassic) and sent to Marsh. It was partially prepared, 
misidentified as 
Camarasaurus, and forgotten. Several years ago, Jack McIntosh "discovered" it 
at the 
Smithsonian, contacted Ken Carpenter, who had the skull prepared, molded and 
cast. The missing 
pieces were fabricated, and a complete skull was constructed and is on display 
at the Denver 
Museum of Natural History. It is clearly Brachiosaurus, although differing from 
B. brancai in 
several details.  Since very little postcranial material was recovered in the 
original 
excavation, it cannot be linked directly to B. altithorax, although this is a 
distinct 
possibility. The descriptive paper was published in 1998.

As for other "Brachiosaur - type" skull from North America, I have heard rumors 
of a partial 
skull from the Morrison Fm of Texas.  Field work in the Early Cretaceous of 
Utah by 4 or 5 
different institutions is producing several new "Brachiosaurid/Titanosaur" 
skeletons.  
Unfortunately, preparation is slow work.  We will just have to wait a while for 
the descriptive 
papers to come out.

cheers,

Virginia Tidwell
Denver Museum of Natural History



On 11/05/99 17:07:02 you wrote:
>
>While on the topic of brachiosaurs, I have a question.  There is a rumor 
>that a _Brachiosaurus_ skull may actually have been found in North America, 
>and it looks very different to the skull of the Tendaguru _Brachiosaurus_ 
>(B. brancai_).  In fact (says the rumor) it's usually been assumed that this 
>skull belongs to _Camarasaurus_, which it resembles very closely.  Can 
>anyone confirm?  (And apologies if I'm blabbing something top-secret :-) )
>
>
>Tim