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The Recapitation of Apatosaurus

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 July 2017

David S Berman  and
John S. McIntosh
David S Berman
Affiliation:
Section of Vertebrate Paleontology, Carnegie Museum of Natural History, 4400 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15213-4080
John S. McIntosh
Affiliation:
Wesleyan University Middletown, Connecticut 06457
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Extract

In 1915 the Carnegie Museum of Natural History's magnificent skeleton of the sauropod dinosaur Apatosaurus louisae, discovered in 1909 at what is now Dinosaur National Monument in northeastern Utah, took its place alongside the equally impressive skeleton of Diplodocus carnegii in the Hall of Dinosaurs. At that time and for the next 17 years, however, it stood conspicuously headless. It was not until December of 1932 that the skeleton was completed, and then with the wrong head—a Camarasaurus skull. How this came about and how the error was corrected requires the untangling of a long series of events that began with the first discoveries and descriptions of the giant sauropod dinosaurs of North America over a century ago.

Type
Thinking About Dinosaurs: Past, Present, and Future
Information
The Paleontological Society Special Publications , Volume 7: Dino Fest , 1994 , pp. 83 - 98
Copyright
Copyright © 1994 Paleontological Society 

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References

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