Saurophaganax, SVP

["Tracy L. Ford" <dino.hunter@cox.net>]

Matt Wedel asked me to pass this along...

Those attending SVP this fall can see a mounted skeleton of
Saurophaganax, albeit a heavily reconstructed one, in the new OMNH
building.  IIRC, it was made by casting the S. elements from the OMNH
collection and scaling up Allosaurus elements to match.  Even more
tentatively, given my faulty memory and the fact that S. is from the
"bad" (i.e., non-sauropodous) side of the saurischian family, I think
the mounted skeleton is 39 feet long and has a 4-foot skull (again,
based on Allosaurus).

I have played around with one of the femora and the big claw.  The big
claw is 9 or 10 inches across, on a straight line from the tip to the
base.  No idea what the around-the-curve length is.

Finally, an anecdote.  When the cast skeleton arrived at OU, it was
assembled in the old WAC gymnasium that served as the exhibits staging
area.  This was done without my knowledge.  At the time, the last jacket
of Sauroposeidon vertebrae was also being prepared in the gym.  I'm a
nightowl and like to work at odd hours, so the following night I let
myself into the gym around 1:00 A.M. to do some work on the verts.  It
was pitch black in the gym and I couldn't see a thing as I went to turn
on the lights.  After flipping on the lights, I turned around . . . to
see a 39-foot killing machine* 'smiling' at me from about five feet
away.  I haven't actually soiled myself in the service of paleontology,
but I came pretty close that night.

* Although I personally doubt it, I acknowledge that S. and other large
theropods may not have actually been predatory.  Such niceties were
furthest from my mind when that big, toothy head materialized in what I
expected to be an empty space.

Cheers,

Matt

--
Mathew J. Wedel
University of California
Museum of Paleontology
1101 Valley Life Science Bldg.
Berkeley, CA 94720-4780
"The product of freedom and security is a constant."
- Larry Niven, from "Niven's Laws"


Tracy L. Ford
P. O. Box 1171
Poway Ca  92074