Re: [darren.naish@port.ac.uk: Giant brachiosaur & Rhynchocephalia]

[David Marjanovic <david.marjanovic@gmx.at>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike Taylor" <mike@indexdata.com>
Sent: Monday, February 14, 2005 11:43 AM

> Forwarded on behalf of occasional HP Darren Naish.
>
> [...]
>
> Firstly, regarding the size of the English brachiosaurid
> cervical vertebra MIWG.7306 (referred to affectionately by
> some of us as 'Angloposeidon'), Mike pointed out that the
> specimen is 745 mm long, not 1230 mm as suggested by
> David. I don't know where the 1230 mm came from,

Sorry. I probably mixed it up with the 23 m that were at the time given as 
the estimate of the total length of the animal.

> but in
> 2002 I gave a few talks and published a few articles (e.g.,
> the one in _Dino Press_ 7) where the total length was given
> as 1060 mm. While 745 mm is the officially 'correct' length
> (it is the maximum measurable centrum + condyle length),
> there's more than one way to measure a vertebra and one
> could argue that my 1060 mm is not incorrect. Initially (viz,
> before clever people told me otherwise) I stupidly thought
> that the total length of any vertebra meant, like, total length
> - - that is, maximum measurable length from tip of prezyg to
> rim of cotyle.

Oh.
Perhaps someone should introduce the term "functional length" for the 745 
mm?

> The same goes for the animal represented by
> MIWG.7306. The same size as _B. brancai_?

(This is probably where the 23 m figure came from.)