A unique Morrison-Formation sauropod specimen with biconcave dorsal vertebrae
- Published
- Accepted
- Subject Areas
- Developmental Biology, Evolutionary Studies, Paleontology
- Keywords
- sauropod, dinosaur, Morrison Formation, Brachiosaurus, dorsal vertebra, biconcave
- Copyright
- © 2017 Taylor et al.
- Licence
- This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ Preprints) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
- Cite this article
- 2017. A unique Morrison-Formation sauropod specimen with biconcave dorsal vertebrae. PeerJ Preprints 5:e3144v2 https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.3144v2
Abstract
AMNH FARB 291 is a unique sauropod dinosaur specimen, excavated in 1898 from the Bone Cabin Quarry of Wyoming (Upper Jurassic; Morrison Formation). It consists of a sequence of five contiguous dorsal vertebrae, all with biconvex centra: a morphology not previously observed in any sauropod, and which is very rare even in other amniotes.
The specimen was initially catalogued as Brontosaurus, one of only half a dozen sauropods then known. But it lacks diplodocid features such as bifid neural spines, short centra and dual centroprezygapophyseal laminae. Instead, it resembles Brachiosaurus in its elongated centra, forward-shifted neural arches and lobe-like transverse processes. Centrum lengths (from anteriormost to posteriormost) are 207, 205, 232, 222 and 207 mm, about 60% those of the Brachiosaurus holotype. This specimen could represent:
1. normal development: the condyle would have ossified separately but the individual died before this could happen;
2. a developmental anomaly;
3. a Brachiosaurus with a rare variation not previously seen due to paucity of specimens;
4. a bizarre taphonomic event;
5. a unique taxon in which this is a normal, inherited trait.
Vertebrae typically ossify as rings of bone around the notochord, which sometimes persists as a tunnel through the centrum. There is a developmental continuum from biconcave centra with a persistent notochordal tube (as in most fishes), through biconcave centra with the notochord persisting as intervertebral cartilage balls, to the normal amniote condition. However, all known baby sauropod presacrals have already ossified opisthocoelous or amphiplatyan centra, so the present specimen remains mysterious.
Author Comment
This abstract is identical to the previous version. The only difference is that now the poster itself is attached as a supplementary file.
Supplemental Information
A unique Morrison-Formation sauropod specimen with biconcave dorsal vertebrae [POSTER]
The poster to be presented at the SVPCA 2017 conference