Amphicoelias

Camarasaurus, Amphicoelias and other sauropods of Cope.

Biggest sauropod ever (part…. II) Darren Naish 2007

For such a wondrous beast _Amphicoelias fragillimus_ is a terrible name indeed.

Finally, some hot giant amphicoelian action Darren Naish 2007

Well, it was thought to belong to the genus Amphicoelias which had already been named for a rather small diplodocid, and it is "most fragile" in incorrect Latin.

Finally, some hot giant amphicoelian action Darren Naish 2007

In the previous post we looked at the obscure and poorly known mega-sauropod Amphicoelias fragillimus, described in 1878 on the basis of an incomplete but enormous dorsal vertebra and the distal end of a femur.

Biggest sauropod ever (part…. II) Darren Naish 2007

Camarasaurus, Amphicoelias and other sauropods of Cope.

Archive 2007-01-01 Darren Naish 2007

In August 1878 the famous and prolific scientist* Edward Drinker Cope (1840-1897), portrait at left, described a new immense sauropod, Amphicoelias fragillimus, from the Garden Park quarries of the Morrison Formation of Colorado.

Archive 2007-01-01 Darren Naish 2007

Biggest of the big: a critical re-evaluation of the mega-sauropod Amphicoelias fragillimus Cope, 1878.

Biggest sauropod ever (part…. II) Darren Naish 2007

Was Cope right in referring his second Amphicoelias species to the same genus as the first?

Archive 2007-01-01 Darren Naish 2007

Due in part to these facts (and also, perhaps, to its poorly publicised and unfamiliar-sounding – or ‘crappy’ – name), Amphicoelias fragillimus was to be all but forgotten in the decades that followed … During the 1990s, little-known articles by John McIntosh (revered older statesman of sauropod research) and Greg Paul looked briefly at A. fragillimus.

Biggest sauropod ever (part…. II) Darren Naish 2007

After years of suffering all-too-brief mentions, asides and speculative remarks, the oft-alluded-to but long-neglected gigantic diplodocoid sauropod Amphicoelias fragillimus has been re-examined.

Archive 2007-01-01 Darren Naish 2007