STL Science Center

STL Science Center

06 October 2012

Ghost Pictures

I'd like to start off today's post by posting a picture and the caption from Edaphosaurus.com:


The picture above shows the scale between it [Bruhathkayosaurus]in
red Grey and other dinosaurs. They are: sauroposeidon in blue; seismosaurus in orange;  Argentinosaurus in purple and diplodocus in green. Bruhathkayosaurus was larger than all of them.

The size of Bruhathkayosaurus would have been its most important feature, and to not sound too skeptical, it probably is still its most important feature. Given that we know very little, and did even when the findings were originally unearthed due to the fact that the skeleton was mostly incomplete, the general body shape of Bruhathkayosaurus is thought to be that of a very typical, though very large, sauropod. The unfortunate fact that we have so little of this sauropod's skeleton (nothing now to be exact due to the improper care shown to the type fossils) is a great tragedy to all of paleontology, not just the sauropod loving community within paleontology.

To put that estimated size in proportion to animals we know of today, here is a nice little graphic that shows our animal in relation to a few other dinosaurs as well as an elephant, a man, a whale, and a pterosaur. Supposedly, if we believe the originally reported size estimates of Yadagiri and Ayyasami, Bruhathkayosaurus was larger than the current largest living animal, the Blue Whale, by at the least a few tons and many meters (or yards). It is too bad that the remains have been washed away permanently, as it would be wondrous to see such an enormous animal, even in its partial completeness, in some museum of the world for all to look at. This final size comparison shows many of the large sauropods with which we are familiar including one that was mistaken for tree trunks initially and later described as a dinosaur (look back to yesterday and notice how Bruhathkayosaurus had a reverse problem being recognized as a dinosaur that may only be trees). That dinosaur, by the way, was Sauroposeidon, the tallest grey image in the gallery here.

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