Barosaurus

The Barosaurus family of enormous quadrupedal herbivorous dinosaurs are characterized by very long necks and long, whip-like tails. Barosaurs had the same number of neck vertabrae as its more well-known relative Diplodocus, but each vertabrae was nearly a meter long.

Fast Facts

1. Name Means: "Heavy Lizard"
2. Naming Credit: Othniel Charles Marsh (1890)
3. Range: North Africa
4. Classification:
   1. Order: Saurischia
   2. Family: Diplodocidae
   3. Genus: Barosaurus
   4. Type Species: Barosaurus lentus
5. Period: Upper Jurassic
6. Length: Up to 90 feet
7. Weight: Approximately 10 tons
8. One of the longest-neck dinosaurs
9. Neck Vertebrae Length: Over 39 inches

Spoils of the Bone Wars

The first Barosaurus specimens were unearthed during the Bone Wars of the late 19th century, when several gentleman adventurer paleontologists raced to out-do each other with new dinosaur fossil discoveries. The initial remains were found in the Black Hills of South Dakota in 1890.

In 1922 a team from the Carnegie Museum of Natural History discovered three nearly complete skeletons. Much later, a long-forgotten complete skeleton was discovered in storage at the Royal Ontario Museum in December 2007.

Heart-Pumping Action

The enormous size of Barosaurus and the proportionally extreme length of its neck has led to much speculation as to how the creature actually managed to effectively pump blood to all parts of its brain. When paleontologists originally reconstructed the beast, they positioned its neck in a fashion similar to a giraffe, but in that position, Barosaurus would have required a heart larger than a ton. More recent reconstructions place the neck parallel to the ground and postulate giraffe-like arterial valves. The question remains whether or not Barosaurus would have passed out if it reared up on its hind legs.

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