The utter size of *Turiasaurus*

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

A great and mighty beast it is. I was inclined to dismiss the "40 to 48 
tonnes" as too high, but no. The authors can't get their calculations (in 
the supplementary information) below 42 tonnes; of course these calculations 
involve a fair amount of arm-waving because the material is incomplete, but 
the same method (humerus & femur circumference) gives only 29 tonnes for 
*Brachiosaurus*, which is apparently on the realistic end of things when all 
the air in the vertebral column is taken into account.

*Turiasaurus* is (as detailed in the supp. inf.) the most complete of the 
supergiants ( = *Sauroposeidon* and bigger), followed by *Seismosaurus*.

The euhelopodids-are-cetiosaurids result is very interesting... keep in mind 
that this result is derived the data matrix of the sauropod chapter of The 
Dinosauria II, completely unchanged except for the addition of the three 
turiasaurs. Once again this demonstrates the importance of taxon selection.