Re: Whip-tail brontosaur and Astrodon

[Mike Keesey <tmk@dinosaur.umbc.edu>]

On Sat, 22 Jan 2000 ceevans@home.com wrote:

> Good to be back. This question is for all you lucky people(including me)
> that have read one of the best(if not THE best)dinosaur book out there,
> Raptor Red by Robert T. Bakker. Here's the questions: towards the end of
> the book, Raptor Red and her sister meet the huge whip-tail brontosaur.
> I was wondering if anyone knows if Bakker was really referring to a
> brontosaur, or was it a diplodicid, which it sure looks like in the
> character illustrations in the back of the book. Secondly, does anyone
> have any info on Astrodon, the huge 40,000 pound sauropod Raptor Red and
> her mate kill in the beginning, and how are the whip-tail and Astrodon
> different?

I believe Bakker often uses the term "brontosaur" instead of
"sauropod". Since _Brontosaurus_ (=_Apatosaurus) is a diplodocid, and
diplodocids have "whip-tails", it's probably a diplodocid, although I
wasn't aware that any were left in the Early Cretaceous. _Astrodon_ was a
primitive titanosauriform (="brachiosaur") -- see
http://dinosaur.umbc.edu/taxa/macronaria.html

-- T. Michael Keesey .................................. <tmk@dinosaur.umbc.edu>
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