Paleontologists from the Western College of Well being Sciences, Brigham Younger College, the Arizona Museum of Herbal Historical past and Auburn College have described a brand new specimen of Haplocanthosaurus in line with bones excavated from the Dry Mesa Dinosaur Quarry close to Delta, Colorado, the USA.
An artist’s affect of Haplocanthosaurus delfsi. Symbol credit score: Michael B. H. / CC BY-SA 3.0.
Haplocanthosaurus is a small genus of intermediate sauropod dinosaurs that lived all over the Overdue Jurassic duration, 155 to 152 million years in the past.
Simplest two contributors of the genus are recently identified: Haplocanthosaurus delfsi and Haplocanthosaurus priscus.
“Haplocanthosaurus is an enigmatic sauropod from the Higher Jurassic Morrison Formation of the American West,” mentioned Western College of Well being Sciences paleontologist Mathew Wedel and co-workers.
“Haplocanthosaurus is understood from a long way fewer folks (roughly 11 specimens) in comparison to lots of the extra well-known Morrison Formation sauropods, similar to Apatosaurus, Diplodocus, and Camarasaurus, all of which might be identified from portions of greater than 100 folks.”
“Moreover, essential portions of the skeleton such because the cranium, forelimbs, and manus and pes both have no longer been recovered, or have no longer been described up to now.”
“As a genus, Haplocanthosaurus has gave the impression in plenty of phylogenetic positions,” they added.
“Research have recovered it as a basal diplodocoid, a basal macronarian, or most likely simply out of doors Neosauropoda, indicative of an risky place in sauropod phylogeny.”
“On the other hand, most up-to-date research have converged in improving Haplocanthosaurus as a basal diplodocoid.”
A block of 3 anterior dorsal vertebrae of Haplocanthosaurus preserved in articulation. Scale bar – 10 cm. Symbol credit score: Boisvert et al., doi: 10.1002/ar.25520.
The brand new specimen of Haplocanthosaurus was once discovered on the Dry Mesa Dinosaur Quarry close to Delta, Colorado.
It is composed of 3 anterior dorsal vertebrae, 4 remoted posterior dorsal vertebrae, and a proper tibia.
“The brand new person of Haplocanthosaurus is known in line with the presence of dorsally angled transverse processes, tall neural arch peduncles, and a huge distal tibia,” the researchers mentioned.
It’s the geologically youngest Haplocanthosaurus specimen at the Colorado Plateau.
“This person will increase the variability of the genus into the actual Brushy Basin Member of the Morrison Formation,” the authors mentioned.
Their paper was once printed in The Anatomical Document.
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Colin Boisvert et al. 2024. Description of a brand new specimen of Haplocanthosaurus from the Dry Mesa Dinosaur Quarry. Anatomical Document 307 (12): 3782-3800; doi: 10.1002/ar.25520
