IoW BRACHIOSAUR LIMB

[<darren.naish@port.ac.uk>]

On the mounted forelimb of MIWG-BP001, the Barnes High 
brachiosaur, at Dinosaur Farm Museum (Brighstone, Isle of Wight), 
Mike Taylor wrote...

> OK, time to explain.  The oddness is in the cross-section of the
> humerus.  Stupidly, I didn't take any photos, even though I had my
> camera with me; and I don't have accurate measurements; but folks,
> that bone is weird.  It's more like a blade than a tube.  My rough
> estimate would be that it's something like six inches wide
> medio-laterally, but no more than an inch and half think
> cranio-caudally.

The humerus is squished flat, as I know from personal examination of 
the real thing (though it may naturally have been elliptical in cross-
section and not necessarily tubular). There is a good photo of the 
mounted limb in Martill and Naish (eds), _Dinosaurs of the Isle of 
Wight_. Full details, as posted on this list before, at... 
http://www.cmnh.org/fun/dinosaur-archive/2001Jul/msg00378.html

Incidentally, the humerus of MIWG-BP001 lacks the craniodistal fossa 
seen on the type humerus (BMNH 28626) of _Pelorosaurus 
conybeari_. The latter is from Cuckfield, West Sussex, but this 
difference does indicate that there are at least two brachiosaurids 
(sensu lato) in the English Wealden.

DARREN NAISH 
PALAEOBIOLOGY RESEARCH GROUP
School of Earth & Environmental Sciences
UNIVERSITY OF PORTSMOUTH
Burnaby Building
Burnaby Road                           email: darren.naish@port.ac.uk
Portsmouth UK                          tel (mobile): 0776 1372651     
P01 3QL                                tel (office): 023 92842244
                                       www.palaeobiology.co.uk