Katie Tremaine with Femur

New finds and new finds.  As usual, more well preserved dinosaur bones have been found at the Hanksville-Burpee Quarry.  We have been focusing on a sub-adult (teenage) sauropod called Barosaurus.  Barosaurus is a relative of Apatosaurus (although not as stocky) and Diplodocus (not quite as long).  Barosaurus had an extremely long neck, four column-like legs and a whip-like tail.  An adult Barosaurus might get to 80 feet long, 15-20 feet tall and weighed (in life) about 20 tons.  This specimen is beautiful and in some places partially articulated (bones still connected).

Articulated Tail

For several days, Lab Preparator Mindy Householder has been excavating a partially articulated tail.  Near it are the hips, femora (upper leg bones), tibiae (lower leg bones), fibulae (shin bones), ribs, humeri (upper arm bones and some forearm material.  I think that we also have some neck material.  So needless to say, this is going to be a mountable dinosaur.  A rough estimate based on its 5 foot long femur would indicate this Barosaurus might have been 50-60 feet long when it died…..so a teenager??

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