WEBVTT - Are You Picturing the Right Brachiosaurus?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey brain Stuff,

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<v Speaker 1>Lauren Vogelbaum. Here, you know you've made it in this

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<v Speaker 1>wild world of ours when astronomers name something after you.

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<v Speaker 1>And On April eighth of nineteen ninety one, scientists at

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<v Speaker 1>the European Southern Observatory spotted a previously unknown asteroid in

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<v Speaker 1>orbit between Mars and Jupiter. Since the thing needed a name,

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<v Speaker 1>they called it nine nine five four. Brachiosaurus a long armed,

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<v Speaker 1>long necked plant eating dinosaur. A Rachiosaurus resided in what's

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<v Speaker 1>now North America during the late Jurassic Period, about one

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<v Speaker 1>hundred and fifty five to one hundred and fifty million

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<v Speaker 1>years ago. Today, the animal lives on in our popular culture.

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<v Speaker 1>For example, in the original Jurassic Park film, a herd

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<v Speaker 1>of them grazing are the first majestic creatures we see,

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<v Speaker 1>set to John William's sweeping score. But this dinosaur fame

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<v Speaker 1>comes with an astrisk. Portrayals of the giant reptile in

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<v Speaker 1>the Jurassic Park films were largely based on a different dinosaur.

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<v Speaker 1>Its taxonomical name is Giraffetitan bronchi. This is a mix

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<v Speaker 1>up that goes back a long way in paleontology anyway, Okay.

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<v Speaker 1>In the year nineteen hundred, while on a fossil finding

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<v Speaker 1>trip around Grand Junction, Colorado, paleontologist Elmer Riggs and his

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<v Speaker 1>assistant H. William Menki came across a very large and

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<v Speaker 1>very incomplete skeleton of a sauropod. The sarropods were a

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<v Speaker 1>diverse group of herbivorous dinosaurs. Generally, they had long necks,

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<v Speaker 1>small heads, and column like legs. Many species were flat

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<v Speaker 1>out enormous. Indeed, the biggest land animal to ever draw

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<v Speaker 1>breath was undoubtedly a sarapod, but the skeleton Rigs and

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<v Speaker 1>Menkey on Earth was missing several pieces. All that remained

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<v Speaker 1>were some ribs and vertebraates, a partial hip, an incomplete

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<v Speaker 1>shoulder blade, and two gigantic limb bones. Obviously, this animal

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<v Speaker 1>was a sauropod, but it had weird proportions. Mossauropods found

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<v Speaker 1>before the year nineteen hundred had forelombs that looked much

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<v Speaker 1>shorter than their hind limbs. Yet the situation was reversed here.

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<v Speaker 1>Riggs was fascinated by the right humorus, or upper armbone

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<v Speaker 1>that came with the skeleton at six feet or two

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<v Speaker 1>meters in length. It was slightly longer than the dinosaur's

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<v Speaker 1>right femur or upper leg bone, which was also preserved.

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<v Speaker 1>In an article published in nineteen oh one in the

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<v Speaker 1>journal Science, Riggs wrote that, along with some other bones,

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<v Speaker 1>the quote extraordinary length of the humorists suggests an animal

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<v Speaker 1>whose shoulders would rise high above the pelvic region, giving

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<v Speaker 1>the body something of a draft like proportion. Two years later,

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<v Speaker 1>in nineteen oh three, he named the new animal Brachyosaurus althorax.

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<v Speaker 1>The name Brachiosaurus means arm lizard, while the species name

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<v Speaker 1>alt thorax roughly translates to deep chested, nice and descriptive,

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<v Speaker 1>but okay. Time for a plot twist. Between nineteen oh

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<v Speaker 1>nine and nineteen thirteen, German scientists working in East Africa

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<v Speaker 1>removed two hundred and twenty five tons of fossils from

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<v Speaker 1>mainland Tanzania, which was part of a German colony back then.

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<v Speaker 1>The piece de resistance another massive sauropod skeleton. Unlike the

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<v Speaker 1>incomplete Colorado specimen, this individual came with an albeit partial skull,

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<v Speaker 1>plus most of the ribs and vertebra were recovered. They

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<v Speaker 1>were identified as Brachiosaurus. Material and eventually assigned to a

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<v Speaker 1>new species, Brachiosaurus bronchi. That African giant stretched over eighty

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<v Speaker 1>feet or twenty five meters long and could have carried

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<v Speaker 1>its head about forty feet or thirteen meters off the ground.

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<v Speaker 1>The towering specimen, and now on display at the Berlin

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<v Speaker 1>Natural History Museum in Germany, is a single tallest mounted

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<v Speaker 1>dinosaur skeleton in the world. Crucially, Brochiosaurus bronchi gave paleo

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<v Speaker 1>artists more fossils to work with than North America's Bronchiosaurus

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<v Speaker 1>alta thorax. Ever, did the effects teams behind Jurassic Park

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<v Speaker 1>modeled their Bronchiosaurus design on the African species. Other artists

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<v Speaker 1>have done likewise over the years. Then things got complicated.

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<v Speaker 1>One Gregory S. Paul, a renowned dinosaur illustrator, pointed out

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<v Speaker 1>some anatomical differences between the two Brochiosaurus species in nineteen

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<v Speaker 1>eighty eight. He claimed the tusar pods were so distinct

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<v Speaker 1>from each other they really didn't belong in the same genus. Later,

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<v Speaker 1>a two thousand and nine study written by Michael P.

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<v Speaker 1>Taylor and published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology concurred.

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<v Speaker 1>Brochiosaurus Bronchi has since been reclassified and renamed. It's now

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<v Speaker 1>known as Giraffatitan bronchi. But okay, now that we've met Giraffatitan,

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<v Speaker 1>let's get to know the real Brochiosaurus, shall we? Because

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<v Speaker 1>of all the naming drama, Brochiosaurus altathorax, the dinosaur that

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<v Speaker 1>Elmer Riggs described in nineteen oh three, is the only

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<v Speaker 1>Brochiosaurus species that experts currently recognize. Brachiosaurus had a tail

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<v Speaker 1>that was both longer and taller than Gerrafhatitans. Also, as

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<v Speaker 1>Taylor wrote in two thousand and nine, it carried a

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<v Speaker 1>greater proportion of its mass on the forelimbs. Hey, you've

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<v Speaker 1>got extra large arms, you might as well use him right.

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<v Speaker 1>There's no doubt that Brochiosaurus was a hefty beast. One

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<v Speaker 1>twenty seventeen paper published in the Journal Paleontology gave a

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<v Speaker 1>mass estimate of sixty four tons for Bronchiosaurus. Other researchers

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<v Speaker 1>think the dinosaur was lighter, perhaps to picking the scales

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<v Speaker 1>at only forty four tons or so. Judging by the

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<v Speaker 1>known false Brachiosaurus was probably around eighty feet or twenty

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<v Speaker 1>five meters long. At the shoulder, it might have stood

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<v Speaker 1>twenty feet or six meters tall, though it could lift

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<v Speaker 1>its head much much higher. The exact shape of that

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<v Speaker 1>head is debatable. A possible Brachiosaurus skull emerged in Central

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<v Speaker 1>Colorado during the eighteen eighties. However, apart from a single

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<v Speaker 1>neckbone which was accidentally destroyed, the head was found in isolation,

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<v Speaker 1>so as of this writing, there's no way to be

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<v Speaker 1>sure if it belonged to a Brachiosaurus or some altogether

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<v Speaker 1>different sauropod. Besides Brachiosaurus, there were loads of other long

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<v Speaker 1>necked dinos stamping around North America during the Late Jurassic period.

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<v Speaker 1>A prehistory buffs should be well acquainted with the Morrison Formation,

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<v Speaker 1>internationally famous for its rich fossil record. This is a

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<v Speaker 1>geologic sequence of shales, sandstones, and limestones that range from

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<v Speaker 1>one hundred and fifty five to one hundred and forty

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<v Speaker 1>eight million years old. The Morrison runs all the way

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<v Speaker 1>from Monte Hannah and the Dakotas to New Mexico and Arizona.

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<v Speaker 1>Brochiosaurus altathorax is just one of many sauropods that have

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<v Speaker 1>been found in these rocks. By some counts, about thirty

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<v Speaker 1>distinctive sauropod species lived in what's now the Morrison Formation,

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<v Speaker 1>including species of Diplodocus and Brontosaurus. It's fun to think

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<v Speaker 1>about how such giant animals could have coexisted, Though not

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<v Speaker 1>all of sauropods represented in the various Morrison deposits lived

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<v Speaker 1>at the exact same time as for Brochiosaurus. The good

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<v Speaker 1>old arm lizard still makes headlines now and then. A

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<v Speaker 1>juvenile sauropod found in a Wyoming quarry was tentatively identified

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<v Speaker 1>as a young Brochiosaurus in twenty twelve. Measuring around six

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<v Speaker 1>feet or two meters long, the little tyke would have

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<v Speaker 1>been a far cry from the titan that Rigs and

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<v Speaker 1>Menkey discovered. Like they say, big things have small beginnings.

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<v Speaker 1>Today's episode is based on the article will the real

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<v Speaker 1>Brachysaurus Please Stand up? On HowStuffWorks dot Com? Written by

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<v Speaker 1>Mark Mancini. Brain Stuff is production by Heart Radio in

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<v Speaker 1>partnership with HowStuffWorks dot Com and is produced by Tyler Klang.

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<v Speaker 1>Four more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app,

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