Re: Re: Re: Re: Life's scale reduction since the Dinosaurs

[Thomas_R_HOLTZ@umail.umd.edu (th81)]

>
>> >Sorry for the mental lapse.  BTW, what do you mean "unless Amphicoelias 
>> >[fragillimus]  was real?"  Even the one dorsal vertebra indicates that 
>> >there was SOMETHING very large wandering around back then!
>>  
>> It turns out that the broken neural arch was never even collected!  No
>> photographs, not lithographs, only field measurements and a line drawing.
>> It is not unreasonable that it was real, but it cannot be confirmed (unless
>> Ken Carpenter or someone else manages to find new bits of it!).
>
>     I've seen a drawing of Cope standing next to a vertebrae labeled 
>Amphicoelias.  The ends of the neaural arch and transerse processes were 
>gone, bu the centrum and the part that the arches and processes come off 
>of were intact.  The missing parts were drawn in.  The incomplete 
>vertebrae alone was taller than Cope.  Ken Carpenter might know the 
>drawing I'm talking about. 

Indeed, and that is ALL that was recorded of it. (that's the line drawing to
which I refer).  Unfortunately, I've found out that the specimen wasn't lost
at AMNH - it was never collected (probably for the reason that it got the
name "fragillimus" (which means "most fragile", and not simply "fragile").

Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
Vertebrate Paleontologist
Dept. of Geology
University of Maryland
College Park, MD  20742
Email:Thomas_R_HOLTZ@umail.umd.edu (th81)
Fax: 301-314-9661
Phone:301-405-4084