Sauropod dinosaur research: a historical review

Abstract

In the 169 years since Owen named a tooth as Cardiodon, the study of sauropod dinosaurs has gone through several distinct periods. In the early years, a sequence of descriptions of isolated skeletal elements gave rise to a gradually emerging understanding of the animals that would later be known as sauropods. The second phase began in 1871 with Phillips's description of Cetiosaurus oxoniensis, the first reasonably complete sauropod, and continued with the Marsh-Cope Bone Wars and the description of the nearly complete sauropods Camarasaurus and 'Brontosaurus' (¼ Apatosaurus). As these and other genera became better known, a third phase began, exploring not just the remains but the lives of these giants, with arguments about posture and habitat to the fore, and with the public becoming increasingly aware of sauropods owing to skeletal mounts. A 'dark age' followed during and after World War II, with sauropods considered uninteresting evolutionary dead ends and largely ignored. This was brought to an end by the 'dinosaur renaissance' that began in the late 1960s, since when work has recommenced with new vigour, and the public has been introduced to a more vigorous and terrestrial image of sauropods through film and television. Both diversity and disparity of sauropods continue to increase through new descriptive work, and the group is now seen as more fascinating and worthy of study than ever before.

New Data about the Paleo Environment of the Papo-Seco Formation (Lower Cretaceous) of Southern Portugal

“…Pelorosaurus [8]. Both of these sauropod designations, Pelorosaurus or Astrodon are in accordance with descriptions of material from various locations in the European Early Cretaceous such as the English Wealden, in spite of affinities between these taxa being uncertain [9]. Fragments of jaws found at Boca do Chapim by Sauvage [3] were identified under the name of the crocodile Suchosaurus girardi; they were later re-examined by Buffetaut and classified as the spinosaurid Baryonyx, based on similarities with the holotype of Baryonyx walkeri from the English Barremian [10].…”

Turning Semicircular Canal Function on Its Head: Dinosaurs and a Novel Vestibular Analysis

“…Sauropod neck posture and, more importantly, flexibility are still widely debated topics [52]–[54]. However, mechanical evidence supports the notion that brachiosaurs had a more stiff neck than many other sauropods [55].…”

Vascular Patterns in the Heads of Dinosaurs: Evidence for Blood Vessels, Sites of Thermal Exchange, and Their Role in Physiological Thermoregulatory Strategies

“…control for the effects of head volume on canal size and because dinosaur body masses from the literature can vary widely even for the same specimen (Taylor, 2010;Campione and Evans, 2012). Head volume was measured from the same exact specimen as are the canal cross sections, removing error due to untested assumptions of intraspecific variation.…”