Not many of you know, but one of the ladies in our lab is Canadian! This is a video from her old stomping grounds, Toronto Ontario Canada which shows the mounting of a complete Barosaurus skeleton in the Royal Ontario Museum. This skeleton was discovered in their archives back in 2007 and was quickly put back together. (Story and link below the video)
This video is older, but it shows you what we hope to have once we are done the preparatory work on our own Barosaurus.
"This is a fascinating and somewhat humorous story, and one the Museum is extremely pleased to tell,” said the ROM’s Director and CEO William Thorsell.
Dr. David Evans, new Associate Curator of Vertebrate Palaeontology in the ROM’s Department of Natural History, found the ultimate “skeleton in the closet.” Arriving in May 2007 to head up the ROM’s dinosaur research program, one of his first jobs was to find a sauropod dinosaur for display in the new Age of Dinosaurs gallery. The ROM’s new gallery already included excellent specimens of three of the four most recognizable dinosaur types – T.Rex, Triceratops, and Stegasaurus – but none of the largest dinosaurs, the sauropods.
After spending months investigating options, including purchasing a cast or even digging one up, Evans found what he was looking for in an unexpected place. While on a related trip to Wyoming, he was reading an article by famed sauropod expert Jack McIntosh when something caught his eye -- a reference to a Barosaurus skeleton at the ROM. The ROM’s databases turned up a blank, but after connecting the disparate dinosaur dots Evans was able to show that what were thought to be isolated bones scattered throughout the collections room actually belonged to a single dinosaur.
"It was an exciting day,” says Evans. “We were searching for an iconic sauropod skeleton, and we had one under our noses the whole time. When all the parts were pulled together, we realized just how much of the animal the ROM actually had -- the better part of a skeleton of a rare, giant, dinosaur.”
The Barosaurus skeleton includes four massive neck vertebrae, a complete set of vertebrae from the back, the pelvis, 14 tail vertebrae, both upper arm bones, both thigh bones (each of which is over 140 cm (55 inches) in length), a lower leg, and various other pieces. The entire assembled skeleton is approximately 27 metres (90 feet) in length, and when alive the animal would have weighed as much as 15,000 kilograms (15 tonnes)."
