Amphicoelias Cope, 1877 [nomen dubium?]
Amphicoelias Cope, 1877
(Pal. Bull., No. 27, 2.
NcZ) "biconcave (vertebrae)"
AM-fi-SEEL-ee-as (Gr. amphi "around, on both sides"
+ Gr. koilos "hollow, concave" + -ias "in character") (m)
named for its dorsal vertebrae. Cope (1877) says:
"The centra [of the dorsal vertebrae] differ from those of Camarasaurus in the form
of their articular extremities...They are unequally amphicoelous,
the posterior extremity being more concave." Marsh (1881) later disputed the diagnostic
value of the feature and the validity of Cope's proposed family Amphicoeliidae,
because "all the known Sauropoda...have similar vertebrae [near the sacrum],
with opisthocoelian centra in the cervical and anterior dorsal region."
One extremely large partial dorsal vertebra described by Cope in 1878 under the name
A. fragillimus (fra-JIL-i-mus) "very fragile" (in allusion to the unusual thinness of
the bone, a feature Cope thought indicated aquatic habits), would have been over eight feet
tall if complete, and must have belonged to an animal close to 170 feet in length.
Unfortunately, this astonishing specimen is now lost. Amphicoelias remains a poorly
known, but possibly diagnosable genus, with newly discovered material yet to be described.
Sauropoda Diplodocidae L. Jur. NA
Видовой состав
Документы
Иллюстрации без комментариев
