Brachytrachelopan mesai [was Short-necked dinosaur challenges accepted theory]

["Andrew A. Farke" <andyfarke@hotmail.com>]

Following up on Allan Edels' earlier post, this is the full reference from
Nature:

Rauhut, O. W. M., K. Remes, R. Fechner, G. Cladera, and P. Puerta. 2005.
Discovery of a short-necked sauropod dinosaur from the Late Jurassic period
of Patagonia. 435:670-672.

To summarize, a new dicraeosaurid, _Brachytrachelopan mesai_, (from the
Greek for short-necked, and Pan, in honor of Daniel Mesa, the Patagonian
shepard who found the specimen while searching for some sheep, is described
from the Tithonian-aged Cañadón Cálcareo Formation of Patagonia, Argentina.
The whole animal only measured about 10 m in estimated length, and it is
pretty apparently an adult. Unfortunately, the specimen is mostly just axial
material--nearly all of the limb elements were eroded away. It's a
crazy-looking beastie, nonetheless. I have renewed respect for sauropods,
that's for sure!

A cladistic analysis places it as sister taxon to Dicraeosaurus.

So that's all I know about it at present. . .cool stuff! This is just one of
the results from the big German Research Foundation grant to study
sauropods. . .

Andy