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TrollMans — He Who Parts The Forest

Published: 2019-02-18 07:11:45 +0000 UTC; Views: 13181; Favourites: 278; Downloads: 40
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Description Near the end of the Late Jurassic, the vast Sundance Sea that once split North America in two is receding due to the emergence of the Rockies cutting it off from the Arctic Ocean; further south, this has created a series of vast salt plains and saline lakes, while along the coast of the dwindling sea, many limestone formations have been exposed by the gradual disappearance of the Sundance.

These environmental changes have little affected the terrestrial organisms which populate North America during this time period. Here, plainly visible even above the treetops a massive Barosaurus super-adult is making its way to the shore. Sauropods such as this are the dominant mega-herbivores of the Jurassic and the largest animals that have ever walked the Earth. And at a staggering hundred and sixty-five feet in length, none come larger than this.

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Early Tithonian (152 MYA), Utah

Barosaurus sp. (beam lizard) - a species of diplodocid sauropod known from the Early Tithonian of Utah, it is based on a single undescribed neck vertebrae ("BYU 9024"). This neck vertebrae is roughly twice the length of the corresponding bone from the B. lentus specimen AMNH 6341, which has an estimated total body length of around 25 metres. This would of course suggest that unless BYU 9024 somehow differed greatly in proportions from other, more complete Barosaurus specimens, it would have been approximately twice the body length and roughly eight times the mass of AMNH 6341. This would put it in a size range of fifty metres in length and possibly exceeding one-hundred metric tonnes, making Barosaurus the largest land animal known from physical evidence.

some generic filler pterodactyloids (maybe Kepodactylus or Utahdactylus).

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The use of scale is always one of the best parts of illustrating large prehistoric animals and obviously the biggest draw (no pun intended) of sauropods. So anyway, here's everyone's favourite undescribed sauropod absolute unit, Barosaurus, just going for a stroll to the beach. 
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Comments: 8

Libra1010 [2019-02-19 21:31:35 +0000 UTC]

 Superb! 

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

SkyPotatoFire [2019-02-18 22:53:24 +0000 UTC]

Wonderful feel to this.

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

mcfuckit [2019-02-18 22:43:53 +0000 UTC]

“I can’t find my keys anywhere”

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

9Weegee [2019-02-18 14:35:43 +0000 UTC]

I thought for a second that this was all underwater, and Barosaurus was just a tanystropheus hiding in seagrass.

👍: 2 ⏩: 0

Dromaeus [2019-02-18 13:29:15 +0000 UTC]

Beautiful!

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TheWatcherofWorlds [2019-02-18 08:25:41 +0000 UTC]

Wow.

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wissowl [2019-02-18 07:53:26 +0000 UTC]

Big enough to have their own colony of birds nesting on it

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

CamtheZoologist [2019-02-18 07:19:55 +0000 UTC]

that's a really cool perspective

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