Just a quick note to let you know I (Mike) was interviewed for the Enlightenment podcast at The Twenty-First Floor, along with Dave “Archosaur Musings” Hone.  Dave’s segment is on common misconceptions about dinosaurs; long-time readers will be less than wholly astonished to learn that mine is on: sauropods.

It probably won’t contain much that SV-POW! regulars don’t know already, but anyone who fancies a refresher on the significance of osteological correlates, for example, might find it interesting.

Meanwhile, here is another cervical vertebra of Rapetosaurus, last featured in our previous article the best part of a month ago:

Ninth cervical vertebra (FMNH PR 2209) of Rapetosaurus krausei in A, anterior view; B, posterior view; C, right lateral view. Abbreviations: cpol, centropostzygapophyseal lamina; pcdl, posterior centrodiapophyseal lamina; pfo, pneumatic foramen; podl, postzygodiapophyseal lamina; posf, postspinal fossa; pp, parapophysis; prsf, prespinal fossa; spol, spinopostzygapophysesal lamina; sprl, spinoprezygapophyseal lamina; tpol, intrapostzygapophyseal lamina; tprl, intraprezygapophyseal lamina. Scale bar equals 3 cm.

We’ve not yet given this paper the proper SV-POW! treatment, which I feel bad about: it was long awaited, and is now probably the best description of any titanosaur anywhere.  It’s going to get cited like crazy in descriptive work.  And it’s packed with beautiful pictures — both photos and drawings — of sauropod vertebrae.

We’ll get to it some time.

References

• Curry Rogers, Kristina.  2009.  The postcranial osteology of Rapetosaurus krausei (Sauropoda: Titanosauria) from the Late Cretaceous of Madagascar.  Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 29(4):1046-1086.