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