Barosaurus

80 different Dinosaurs were discovered by Othniel Charles Marsh during the "Bone Wars" and Barosaurus was one of them.

This relative to the more famous Diplodocus lived during the Upper Jurassic, between 155 and 145 millions years go. Its fossils were first uncovered by Marsh in 1889, and parts have been found in various western American states.

Barosaurus was a very long Dinosaur-- adults could reach more than 80 feet from head to tail, and weight upwards of 40,000lbs. Their necks alone stretched to 30ft! That's almost two giraffes!

The neck of a Barasaurus raises some questions about how this Dinosaur's circulatory system worked. If they held their neck straight up it would require an abnormally massive heart to pump blood all the way to the brain. There are theories that Barosaurus either had secondary heart-like structures in its neck, to help move the blood upwards, or they kept their necks parallel to the ground. However, it is difficult to prove either theory-- soft tissue does not exist for these creatures, and the fossilized vertebrae suggest that the Sauropod did stand with its neck stretching upwards. Either way, very interesting things to think about!

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Status : Extinct 145 million years
Location : North America
Size : Full length up to 85ft (26m), Weight up to 44,000lbs (20 metric tons)

Classification : Phylum : Chordata -- Clade : Dinosauria -- Suborder : †Sauropodomorpha
Family : †Diplodocidae -- Genus : †Barosaurus -- Species : † B. lentus

Image : Debivort, Ryan Somma

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Ampelosaurus

Ampelosaurus atacis

Ampelosaurus is one incredible looking Dinosaur. Not only are they members of the gigantically long Sauropod group, but they also had armor on their backs!

Ampelosaurus wasn't as long, or even as long-necked as some of its Sauropod relatives, but at 50ft in length they were far from tiny. They bony plates on the back are called osteoderms, and they grow from the dermal layers of the skin. Ankylosaurus and Stegosaurus are two other Dinosaurs famous for their Osteoderms.

This Dinosaur is also pretty distinct because its fossils have been found more-or-less complete. Typically, Titanosaurs (the very large sauropods that lived in the Late Cretaceous) have to be reconstructed using only a handful of found remains. Ampelosaurus has provided us with dozens of fossils, including a skeleton that is very close to complete! They are one of the best known Dinosaurs in Europe.

Ampelosaurus ("Vineyard Lizard") lived between 70 and 65 million years ago, at the very end of the Dinosaurs' reign. They stomped around what is now Europe, and most of their fossils have been recovered from the Marnes Rouges Inférieures Formation in France. They were first uncovered near a Vineyard, hence the name's translation.

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Status : Extinct for 70 million years

Location : Europe
Size : Length up to 50ft (15m)

Classification : Phylum : Chordata -- Superorder : Dinosauria -- Order : Saurischia
Infraorder : Sauropoda -- Genus : Ampelosaurus -- Species : A. atacis

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Amphicoelias fragilis

We all know that the Blue Whale is the longest (and largest) living vertebrate. But is it the longest one to have ever lived? What about Dinosaurs? And what are "The Bone Wars?" Time for a story!

The year is 1877, the place- Colorado. Two paleontologists, Othniel C. Marsh and Edward Drinker Cope, had been embroiled in a paleontological battle of one-up-manship for nearly a decade. These "Bone Wars" stem back to 1868 when Marsh publicly humiliated Cope for reconstructing an Elasmosaurus incorrectly. The battle then intensified when Marsh tossed scientific decorum to the wind and bribed excavators to exclusively send him fossils from a site in New Jersey.

These underhanded actions went on well into the 1890s, as both men resorted to theft, bribery, and destruction of property in attempts to come out on top. They also strove to ruin the other's credibility and get their funding cut off. In the end, both men were ruined financially, and gave American Paleontology some pretty bad PR in the eyes of their European counterparts.

Cope's A. fragilis vertebrae drawing

However, the competition was pretty good for discovery, as they did end up identifying almost 140 new species of Dinosaur in the process. (If you  had to pick a winner, it would probably be Marsh. In the end he simply had more money and was able to hire larger crews, thus enabling him to discover 80 new species, compared to Cope's 56) These two rivals were responsible for the discovery of some of the most famous Dinosaur types. Triceratops, Stegosaurus, and Diplodocus were all finds that can be attributed to the Bone Wars.

But.... they were also responsible for some pretty big screw ups. The whole Brontosaurus/Apatosaurus confusion? Marsh. And what about today's animal? Amphicoelias fragilis? That one is all Cope.

You see, back in 1877 there were some huge digs going on in the American west. Rich fossil sites with dozens of undiscovered species were being fought over by the two men. During this time an absolutely massive vertebrae was uncovered, measuring 5 feet by 9 feet. A creature would have had to measure nearly 200ft long in order to have a bone that size! That would make this Sauropod the longest vertebrate to have ever lived!

...But Cope screwed up somewhere. Because the bone was lost not long after it's uncovering. The only evidence we have are notes and drawings made by Cope. Did he exaggerate? Was there a clerical error? No one really knows, and so Amphicoelias fragilis remains an asterisk on the "Longest-Creatures" list, pending additional fossil evidence.

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Status : Extinct
Location : United States
Size : Length up to 200ft? (61m)

Classification : Phylum : Chordata -- Class : Reptilia -- Order : Saurischia
Superfamily : †Diplodocoidea -- Genus : †Amphicoelias -- Species : A fragilis

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Brontomerus mcintoshi

Brontomerus fights off an attacker!

Genus : Brontomerus
Species : mcintoshi

Length : 46ft (14m)
Weight : 13,500lbs (6,100kg)

Status : Extinct since the Early Cretaceous, approximately 110 million years ago

This animal came across my news radar this morning and I just had to cover it.This new species was actually first discovered in Utah in 1994, but wasn't fully evaluated until 2007. When scientists finally got a good look at it, the realized that this species had a really interesting feature.

Brontomerus mcintoshi has a bony plate that projects from the hip bone. This plate serves as an anchor for the dinosaur's leg muscles. It is between 31% and 55% longer than bone plates in other sauropods. This means that this new dinosaur had substantially powerful hind legs, the most muscular legs of any Sauropod! These legs were so powerful, in fact, that scientists gave it the name Brontomerus, which means "Thunder Thighs." (The species name, mcintoshi, is in honor of John McIntosh, a world authority on Sauropods.)

It is believed that the animals used their powerful legs to move across rough terrain, and that they also used them to kick and stomp at predators!

Bones from two individuals have so far been uncovered, an adult and a much smaller juvenile.

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