Episode 73 is all about Barosaurus, a sauropod with a 30 ft long neck, one of the longest necks of any dinosaur.

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In this episode, we discuss:

• The dinosaur of the day: Barosaurus
• Name means “heavy lizard”
• Lived in the Jurassic
• Type species is Barosaurus lentus
• Lentus means “slow” in Latin
• Fossils found in the Morrison Formation
• Bones first found by the postmistress of Pottsville, South Daktoa, Ms. E.R. Ellerman
• Charles Marsh and John Bell Hatcher (from Yale University) excavated the fossils in 1889. They only found 6 tail vertebrae then. Marsh named it Barosaurus lentus
• The rest of the type specimen wasn’t excavated until 1898 (left in the ground). Marsh’s assistant George Rieber Wieland dug up the bones and found more vertebrae, rib and limb bones
• Rachel Hatch, who owned the land Barosaurus was found, guarded the land until Marsh’s assistant could dig it up
• In 1912, Earl Douglass (fossil hunter) excavated four neck vertebrae, found near a Diplodocus, but then William Jacob Holland said they were part of a different species (ended up being Barosaurus)
• Barosaurus was fully described in 1919 by Richard Swann Lull. Based on the description, the bones Earl Douglass found were considered to be a second partial Barosaurus skeleton (second specimen is in the rock wall at Dinosaur National Monument, wasn’t prepared until the 1980s)
• Douglass found the most complete Barosaurus in 1923 (fossils from this skeleton were spread across the University of Utah, National Museum of Natural History in D.C., and Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh. Then in 1929 Barnum Brown had all the bones shipped to the American Museum of Natural History in NY (still there today); can see a cast of Barosaurus mounted in the museum in a controversial position, rearing up to defend its young from an Allosaurus
• David Evans rediscovered a Barosaurus skeleton in 2007 in the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. Earl Douglass had found the skeleton in the early 1900s and the museum had traded with the Carnegie Museum for it in 1962. But it was forgotten about until David Evans saw a reference to it in the collection
• At first it was classified as Atlantosauridae, but in 1898 it was classified as a diplodocid
• Marsh named two smaller metatarsals that Wieland had found as Barosaurus affinis, but it’s now considered a junior synonym of Barosaurus lentus
• One species that at one time was known as Barosaurus is Tornieria africana. What happened was in 1907 Eberhard Fraas found two sauropods in German East Africa (Tanzania) and he called them Gigantosaurus. But that genus name already belonged to a sauropod from England, so the Tanzania bones were renamed Tornieria in 1911. The bones were studied more closely and Werner Janensch reclassified them as Barosaurus. But some paleontologists though the bones were too distinct, and in 2006 they were redescribed and called Tornieria
• Barosaurus is closely related to Diplodocus
• About the same length as Diplodocus, but had a longer neck and shorter tail
• No skull has been found, but probably similar to Diplodocus and Apatosaurus, with long skulls and peg-like teeth
• Whiplash tail, like Diplodocus
• Very large, up to 85 ft (26 m) long and weighing about 20 tons
• Had forelimbs proportionately longer than other diplodocids, but shorter than most other types of sauropods
• No feet found, but probably had five toes on each foot, with a large claw on the forefeet
• Other dinosaurs in the Morrison Formation that lived at the same time as Barosaurus include Camptosaurus, Dryosaurus, Stegosaurus, Othnielosaurus.
• Also predatory dinosaurs Saurophaganax, Torvosaurus, Ceratosaurus, Marshosaurus, Stokesosaurus, Ornitholestes, Allosaurus
• Other animals that lived at the time were snails, frogs, ray-finned fish, salamanders, turtles, lizards, and some pterosaurs, as well as some early mammals.
• Plants included algae, fungi, moss, horsetails, cycads, ginkgoes, and conifers
• Barosaurus had a long neck that may have helped it eat food without moving too much, or helped get ride of excess body heat
• Had a 30 foot long neck (one of the longest necks of any dinosaur)
• The way Barosaurus cervical vertebrae is structured means it could easily move its neck horizontally but not vertically. This means it probably ate food different from other diplodocids
• Probably swept its neck at ground level for food (not a high browser)
• In 2009, Taylor, Wedel and Naish said that sauropods probably held their necks high
• Seymour and Lillywhite said that an 80-foot long Barosaurus would require 700mmHg blood pressure for blood to reach its head. This means the left ventricle of its heart would have to weigh 2 tons, and it seems unlikely such a large heart would have existed. So they probably had a smaller heart and could not have held its head up that high
• In 1978, Robert Bakker said sauropods “could have used contractions of neck musculature as a relay pump to carry the cranial arterial supply” (but there’s no evidence of this)
• Evidence that some sauropods did hold their heads up high (like Giraffatitan, held its head up to 26 ft above its heart); good for finding food; but it’s unclear how they were able to do this or how big their hearts would have been (no soft tissue to study)
• Why bring this up? Well the way Barosaurus is mounted at the American Museum of Natural History is controversial, because it’s rearing up and its neck is high
• Rearing up is a controversial pose because it would have been difficult on its heart. Probably held its neck parallel to the ground or it had blood accelerators or pseudo-hearts in its neck to help pump blood (no evidence of this)
• Barosaurus rearing up probably would have fallen and broken its neck
• Only two Barosaurus skeletons on display in the world: AMNH and Royal Ontario Museum (can see original skin imprint there)
• AMNH used to also have a model of a juvenile Barosaurus (been in the Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Orientation Center in AMNH since 1996) was removed to make way for the new titanosaur
• Peter Sohn, director of The Good Dinosaur, talked about remembering visiting the AMNH as a kid and being amazed by the Barosaurus. He said in an NPR article, “There was a barosaurus in the atrium. It was kind of standing on two legs, and it blew me away, that thing. … It ignites the imagination to think that something that large could’ve roamed around New York.”
• Can now see that specimen at the Royal Ontario Museum (after being found again); it’s the largest mounted dinosaur in Canada (90 ft, 27.5 m long); the skull is of a Diplodocus (no skull found)
• The bones are mounted in a way they can be removed for paleontologists to study and replace again without disrupting the rest of the skeleton. More of its bones have been found in storage, and may be added to the specimen (may end up being the most complete Barosaurus known). Nickname is “Gordo.”
• Can see Barosaurus in The Land Before Time: The Great Longneck Migration, as background characters who join Littlefoot and his family’s herd
  Science Blogs has a post showing old depictions of Barosaurus that were very wrong. Drawings show Barosaurus raising its head really high, having a flexible tongue and veiny neck, galloping, and with a short tail
• The family Diplodocidae means “double beams”
• Includes Diplodocus, Apatosaurus, Supersaurus, Barosaurus, Brontosaurus
• Compared to titanosaurs and brachiosaurs, dipodocids were slender and long, with short legs, and their back legs were longer than their front legs
• Many may have had spines on its back
• Very long necks, may not have been able to lift heads as high up as other sauropods
• Had small heads and peg-like teeth
• Probably didn’t chew, but swallowed gastroliths to digest their food
• Had long, whip-like tails that they could snap
• Diplodocidae was originally known as Amphicoelidae (named by Edward Cope in 1878), but became a forgotten name; Charles Marsh also named the family Atlantosauridae back in 1877, but that also became a forgotten name (nomen oblitum)
• Barosaurus is in the subfamily Diplodocinae, which also includes Diplodocus, Tornieria and Dinheirosaurus
• This subfamily lived in the Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous
• Other subfamily is Apatosaurines
• Diplodocines were more slender and had longer necks and tails
• Fun fact: Classification of fossilized eggs is called vererovata. And they are classified into oofamilies, oogenera, and oospecies which can generally be called ootaxa. All of those words start with “oo” because it’s the ancient greek prefix for “egg” kind of like ovum.