I Know Dino Podcast Episode 269: Two new #sauropods, Itapeuasaurus and Fushanosaurus, one from a Brazilian beach, the other from a Chinese desert
Episode 269 is all about Hypsibema, a massive hadrosauroid and the state dinosaur of Missouri.
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Dicraeosaurus is a short-necked sauropod from Tanzania! Though related to some of the dinosaurs with the longest necks like Diplodocus and Supersaurus, Dicraeosaurus had a short neck which let it feed on middle level plants. It also had a big head to help it get more food!
Time and Place: Between 150 and 149 million years ago, in the Tithonian of the Late Jurassic
Barosaurus is known from the Brush Basin Member of the Morrison Formation in South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming. Potential specimens of Barosaurus are known from other locations of the Morrison Formation; the entire range of this habitat at the time of Barosaurus is shown below in green (with the range of Barosaurus inside of it, in blue).
Physical Description: Barosaurus in a lot of ways is a fairly typical Diplodocid sauropod - long, large, and with a distinctive whip-tail. But, when you dig under the surface, Barosaurus has nothing truly “typical” about it. The neck of Barosaurus is next-level in its length - and the tail is ridiculous to match. In fact, the estimates of the length of Barosaurus get huge - it was probably more than twenty-six meters long, and some of the most upper estimates of Barosaurus have it at fifty meters long! This would make it one of, if not the, largest known dinosaurs - and certainly the longest! Though it does have a long tail, it differs in appearance from its cousin Diplodocus primarily by having a proportionally longer neck and shorter tail. It was also more slender than Apatosaurus, though it was longer than that contemporary. How did Barosaurus get such a long neck? It literally converted one of the back vertebrae into a neck vertebra! This is so fascinating that I can’t get over it - its close relatives, like Diplodocus, did not employ this to get a longer neck, indicating Barosaurus was using its long neck for things that its cousins were not. Barosaurus was also weird in not having as high of spines on its vertebrae as its cousin Diplodocus and other members of the group. In addition to all of that - it had shorter vertebrae in the tail, which made it shorter than in other members of this group! Interestingly, the bones on the underside of the tail were forked and had forward spikes, which would have given it similar strength to that of Diplodocus; it was probably still a whiptail like other members of this group, though not as much of one as its relatives.
By Slate Weasel, in the Public Domain
Of course, the distinctiveness of Barosaurus is primarily limited to the length of the animal and its spine. In terms of limbs, it had fairly identical limbs to its cousin Diplodocus, though it did have fairly long forelimbs compared to its cousin (by… an almost imperceptible amount, however). Though the feet of Barosaurus aren’t known, it is reasonable to suppose that it would have had feet similar to Diplodocus - with only one claw on the front feet and three small claws on the hind feet. The skull of Barosaurus is not known, but it probably would have been long and low, with peg-like teeth in the front of the jaws for grazing on plants. Its neck was not very flexible in the vertical sense, but it was much more flexible in sweeping from side to side. It is possible that there were spikes of some sort at the end of the tail, which would have packed quite a punch when the tail was used to whip other animals. And, finally, it would have been entirely - if not almost entirely - scaly all over its body. It is also possible that Barosaurus may have featured some brilliant colors, especially in the tail, for communication with other members of the species.
Diet: Barosaurus would have primarily fed on high-level vegetation, able to reach much of it at its natural neck height and then - on top of that - being able to rear up to 50 meters high via going on its hind legs. However, a lack of vertical reach in terms of neck flexibility means that it probably would have swept over a wide area for food, rather than going up and down in the tree level like other Diplodocids. This would have allowed Barosaurus to move very little - if at all - while eating, instead of moving over large distances in search of vegetation.
By Scott Reid
Behavior: Barosaurus was not especially common in its environment, so the question of its social nature is actually somewhat important. Fossil evidence indicates at least some sociality in other Diplodocids - herding, or at least small herds, of other sauropods on the Morrison are clear from fossil evidence and trackways. The question remains - did Barosaurus do what its cousins did? The question is, of course, up in the air without more fossil evidence. It is possible that, in an environment with hundreds and hundreds of large sauropods to feed, Barosaurus may have been more solitary to aid in getting enough food without competing too much with one another. Alternatively, it may have also lived in social groups, allowing for the safety of weaker members of the herd and more cohesiveness in finding food.
Barosaurus, like other Diplodocids, would have been able to rear up on its hind legs to get food. This action would have also made Barosaurus even taller than usual, which would have been fairly imposing to predators nearby. It had a whip-tail, which would have allowed Barosaurus to make very loud sonic cracks in the air; if that tail was covered with spikes, as in other members of the group, it would have also lacerated the skin of other dinosaurs. Still, even without spikes, it would have packed quite a punch for any predators that might have tried to attack it. The sounds of the tail would have been a warning; it is possible that such sounds would have been used in communication with one another, and potentially even display in competition for mates and food and similar things. The impossibly long neck probably was also a sort of sexual display structure, since the longer neck indicated being able to reach more food without walking around. It is uncertain whether or not it would have taken care of its young; while there is no evidence either way - which usually would lead to concluding it did, given the fact most living archosaurs do and there’s extensive evidence of such in extinct dinosaurs - other sauropods (aka the titanosaurs) probably didn’t. So, for now, the jury on that is out.
By Fred Wierum, CC BY-SA 4.0
Ecosystem: Barosaurus lived in the Morrison Formation - an extensive, expansive semi-arid, seasonal floodplain that covered most of Western North America during the Jurassic and was filled with iconic dinosaurs and other animals that we usually think of when we think of the “Jurassic.” Though the Morrison was as arid and open as a modern savanna, the lack of extensive flowering plants at this time rendered the habitat more like a ridiculously huge scrubland. There were a variety of trees - conifers, ginkgos, cycads, and tree ferns - dispersed among the bushes and horsetails and other plants. They congregated around rivers, which were havens of life amongst the arid territory. At the time of the Brushy Basin Environment - the last part of the formation, where Barosaurus could be found - this environment was much muddier and wetter, potentially indicating a change in ecology that would lead to the end of the Morrison Formation, and an extinction of the animals there. There were also expansive volcanic explosions that lead to much of the preservation we see there. A large salt lake present would have been a major feature of the environment, and it was connected to extensive wetlands that formed a break in the wider scrubland around the habitat.
By Danny Cicchetti, CC BY-SA 3.0
Barosaurus may be known from the entire Brushy Basin Environment of the Morrison; however, confirmed fossils of this dinosaur are only known from a few sites. So, in my map above, I give two colors - the wider green color to show the whole ecosystem, aka the wider area that Barosaurus may have ventured in to; and the smaller blue color to show the confirmed range of this dinosaur. In that confirmed range, Barosaurus lived alongside a lot of other animals - in fact, there’s a reason the Morrison is so iconic - its characteristic and distinctive fossils, both of dinosaurs and not of dinosaurs. Barosaurus has been found in, literally, the same sites as other animals - it is known to have lived alongside the predator Allosaurus; in another site, turtles and Pseudosuchians and the Choristodere Cteniogenys, as well as Allosaurus and the more bulky sauropod Camarasaurus; in yet another, Barosaurus lived alongside many turtles, the Pseudosuchians Hoplosuchus and Goniopholis, the tuatara-like Opisthias, and a wide variety of dinosaurs - other sauropods like Diplodocus Apatosaurus and Camarasaurus, predators like Allosaurus Torvosaurus and Ceratosaurus, and Ornithiscians like Stegosaurus Dryosaurus and Uteodon. So, Barosaurus was a part of a very wide and diverse community, with a great diversity in terms of herbivores and predators that would have attacked Barosaurus. That being said, there were many other animals that may have lived alongside Barosaurus, based on just… probability, even though they weren’t found directly with it. There were other stegosaurs like Alcovasaurus and Hesperosaurus; more small running herbivores like Nanosaurus; larger bulky bipedal herbivores like Camptosaurus; more sauropods, including Apatosaurus and Supersaurus; and smaller predators that would have probably been more of a threat to Barosaurus young than adults - Marshosaurus, Coelurus, Ornitholestes, and Stokesosaurus. Sadly, the organization of the Morrison is something of a mess - so, while many other dinosaurs and animals lived alongside Barosaurus, we can’t exactly be sure which ones. There were probably a variety of Multituberculate, Tinodontid, Eutriconodont, and Dryolestoid mammals, as well as others; some pterosaurs were probably there like Harpactognathus, and, of course, there were amphibians as well. This makes the Morrison one of the better examples of an environment to highlight as a representative of a particular time in Earth’s history - since it showcases so many different living things!
By José Carlos Cortés
Other: Barosaurus was a close relative of Diplodocus, though it is difficult to determine how close, as the evolutionary relationships between the Diplodocids are still being worked out via phylogenetic studies. It is possible that an offshoot of Diplodocus (which were around before Barosaurus evolved) split to take advantage of not moving much to eat, and instead sweeping its neck around to gather food. For a while, another sauropod in Africa was considered to be a species of Barosaurus; today, however, it seems to be very clearly in its own genus, Tornieria, and actually far removed from both Diplodocus and Barosaurus (while still being in this closely related family group). So, for now, Barosaurus is only known from North America. These dinosaurs were distinctive long and slender sauropods, as opposed to their long and bulky cousins, the Apatosaurines, that they lived alongside.
~ By Meig Dickson
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