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Description
NOTE THIS IS OUTDATED:

UPDATED HERE 2/5/2023:

Maraapunisaurus fragillimus

One of the most recently described large sauropods from the Morrison formation, Maraapunisaurus is a member of a group of derived diplodocid sauropods called Rebbachisaurs. This giant appeared ~150,000,000 years ago and was the earliest of all Rebbachisaurs to evolve.
However, unlike other Sauropods, this animal is known from no existing material. To understand this creature's history, one must go back to when it was first discovered.

History and Naming:

In 1878, a fossil hunter Oramel Lucas was hired by Edward Drinker Cope to find fossils, and find them he did.
In the state of Colorado, near a quarry close to where Camarasaurus specimens were found, Lucas uncovered a massive vertebral fragment around 70

% complete. He presented this fragment to Cope and he described it, during the height of the infamous Bone Wars between Cope and his Rival O.C. Marsh. Cope described the vertebra as around 5ft in height, but it could have been up to 8ft tall. It was located on the dorsal section of the creature. It was definitely a Sauropod, but even for animals described, it dwarfed every other sauropod discovered. It was attributed to a species of Sauropod called, Amphicoelias fragillimus. Meaning, "Very Fragile Biconcave". In reference to the vertebral structure and that it looked fragile. Cope drew drawings of the vertebra and gave it a detailed description of the animal it belonged to. Using Diplodocus as a comparison, he came up with a gargantuan >200ft long 170-ton giant diplodocid. Making it the largest land vertebrate ever to evolve.
However, shortly after its discovery, the fossil was lost.

To this day, no one has had a clear explanation of what happened to the giant fossil.
One theory is that with this fossil being dug out so quickly, perhaps it broke down and was discarded. Its binomial name literally implies it was "Very Fragile". There was no plaster to keep bones together, resin had just started to be employed in the field. While it was adopted by Marsh and his team, Cope wouldn't use it until the 1880s. A fragile fossil such as the vertebra can easily fall apart without being prepared properly. Many paleontologists think that is why Cope drew only one drawing of the bone and then discarded it since usually, he'd draw it from multiple angles to be as thorough as possible. Another theory is that because this was the Bone Wars, perhaps the material was destroyed by Marsh's paid fossil poachers. Every chance Cope and Marsh had a chance to one-up the other, be it in journals, in the badlands, or even by sabotage, they'd take the chance.
In 1994, an attempt was made to relocate the quarry and find out where Cope's crew found the fossil. Ultimately, the attempt failed because the mudstone bones were the same density as the surrounding rock as well as the fact that the area's fossil-bearing rock had eroded away.

Ultimately, A.fragillimus was seen as a gargantuan ghost of a dinosaur. A lost, giant diplodocid from the early chapters of the infamous Bone Wars.

NOTE THIS IS OUTDATED:

UPDATED HERE 2/5/2023

Once lost, now found and new:

However, in 2018, Dr.Ken Carpenter published a study of the lost fossil and brought this enigmatic giant back into the spotlight.
He proposed that this giant vertebra did not belong to a diplodocid as Cope had thought, but rather the earliest and largest Rebbachisaur. He used vertebral comparisons of the African Rebbachisaurus and Croatian Histriasaurus, two Rebbachisaurs from the early-mid Cretaceous, and found similarities in the shape of the spine as well as their structural characteristics. This would make this giant sauropod the most basal of all members of Rebbachisauridae and means that other Rebbachisaurs split from basal diplodocids in the mid-Jurassic Period and went on their own evolutionary path.
Carpenter named it Maraapunisaurus fragillimus, using the Southern Ute Native American language for the name. As the Native Americans lived close by to where the fossils were found. For "Maraapuni" literally means, "Huge", so "Very Fragile Huge Lizard" was the name described to this titan.

In terms of size, Carpenter based the size off of Limaysaurus of South America but scaled up its proportions with the description Cope gave.

However, the sizes should be taken with a grain of salt, given the only known fossil was lost, and using estimates based on incomplete remains is always challenging to get right. One thing is certain, almost everyone can agree it was a massive animal, but it was not the largest Sauropod ever to evolve. However, many estimates have the animal coming in the range of approximately 90-110 feet long and weighing in at around 60-75 tons. So while not the largest of all Sauropods, with some Cretaceous Titanosaurs, possibly clocking in at over 80 tons, it was definitely one of the largest dinosaurs that lived in the Morrison. It dwarfed its more famous Diplodocid and Apatosaurine relatives in terms of size.

In terms of how this Sauropod looked, Rebbachisaurs have a distinctive high neural spines on their vertebra, which would have given it a pronounced humped section on its back. Its neck would have been shorter, possibly even almost horizontally oriented to the ground. Whereas its Diplodocid cousins probably held their necks in a half-vertical, half-horizontal posture to feed from the tops of conifers and tree ferns. With a more horizontal neck, it would've enabled it to graze off the ferns and horsetail that covered the vast floodplains and scrubland of the Morrison 150,000,000 years ago.
As a Rebbachisaur, its skull would have possessed a distinctive almost duckbilled-like snout, designed for clipping and stripping vegetation. However, unlike a duckbilled dinosaur, it would've just stripped and gulped down large quantities of food and processed it in its gut, no chewing would have been involved when feeding.

This dinosaur was among the largest of all sauropods that lived in the Morrison. While it was not gargantuan 200+ft long giant E.D. Cope had thought, it was still a massive and intriguing animal with a fascinating history.

NOTE THIS IS OUTDATED:

UPDATED HERE 2/5/2023
___________________________________________________________________________________________

Been a while since I did a sauropod. So I thought I'd do another Morrison giant and write about its intriguing history.

This is a dinosaur I modified from Alvin Abreu's Nigersaurus. I brought the legs more in-line, modified the posture, made the neural spines taller, neck wider, and modified the skin.
I actually made this before I made Episode 2 and I did want to use it in an early draft. However, it was from Colorado and I was targeting the location of Wyoming and with Diplodocus hallorum, and I learned that both were not contemporaries (separated by ~4,000,000 years).

Still, I think I did a decent job and gave it a distinctive color scheme.

In terms of size, I sort of went with a middle-of-the-road estimate between Carpenter's and Paul's estimates. For hip-height, I used Paleonerd01 's size chart and just estimated that the human was ~6ft, and I got around 24ft in hip height:
Mystery Solved: Maraapunisaurus fragillimus by Paleonerd01 on DeviantArt

Original Model made by Alvin Abreu:
Jurassic World Nigersaurus (Alvin Abreu) | ZT2 Download Library Wiki | Fandom

Description
NOTE THIS IS OUTDATED:

UPDATED HERE 2/5/2023:

Maraapunisaurus fragillimus

One of the most recently described large sauropods from the Morrison formation, Maraapunisaurus is a member of a group of derived diplodocid sauropods called Rebbachisaurs. This giant appeared ~150,000,000 years ago and was the earliest of all Rebbachisaurs to evolve.
However, unlike other Sauropods, this animal is known from no existing material. To understand this creature's history, one must go back to when it was first discovered.

History and Naming:

In 1878, a fossil hunter Oramel Lucas was hired by Edward Drinker Cope to find fossils, and find them he did.
In the state of Colorado, near a quarry close to where Camarasaurus specimens were found, Lucas uncovered a massive vertebral fragment around 70

% complete. He presented this fragment to Cope and he described it, during the height of the infamous Bone Wars between Cope and his Rival O.C. Marsh. Cope described the vertebra as around 5ft in height, but it could have been up to 8ft tall. It was located on the dorsal section of the creature. It was definitely a Sauropod, but even for animals described, it dwarfed every other sauropod discovered. It was attributed to a species of Sauropod called, Amphicoelias fragillimus. Meaning, "Very Fragile Biconcave". In reference to the vertebral structure and that it looked fragile. Cope drew drawings of the vertebra and gave it a detailed description of the animal it belonged to. Using Diplodocus as a comparison, he came up with a gargantuan >200ft long 170-ton giant diplodocid. Making it the largest land vertebrate ever to evolve.
However, shortly after its discovery, the fossil was lost.

To this day, no one has had a clear explanation of what happened to the giant fossil.
One theory is that with this fossil being dug out so quickly, perhaps it broke down and was discarded. Its binomial name literally implies it was "Very Fragile". There was no plaster to keep bones together, resin had just started to be employed in the field. While it was adopted by Marsh and his team, Cope wouldn't use it until the 1880s. A fragile fossil such as the vertebra can easily fall apart without being prepared properly. Many paleontologists think that is why Cope drew only one drawing of the bone and then discarded it since usually, he'd draw it from multiple angles to be as thorough as possible. Another theory is that because this was the Bone Wars, perhaps the material was destroyed by Marsh's paid fossil poachers. Every chance Cope and Marsh had a chance to one-up the other, be it in journals, in the badlands, or even by sabotage, they'd take the chance.
In 1994, an attempt was made to relocate the quarry and find out where Cope's crew found the fossil. Ultimately, the attempt failed because the mudstone bones were the same density as the surrounding rock as well as the fact that the area's fossil-bearing rock had eroded away.

Ultimately, A.fragillimus was seen as a gargantuan ghost of a dinosaur. A lost, giant diplodocid from the early chapters of the infamous Bone Wars.

NOTE THIS IS OUTDATED:

UPDATED HERE 2/5/2023

Once lost, now found and new:

However, in 2018, Dr.Ken Carpenter published a study of the lost fossil and brought this enigmatic giant back into the spotlight.
He proposed that this giant vertebra did not belong to a diplodocid as Cope had thought, but rather the earliest and largest Rebbachisaur. He used vertebral comparisons of the African Rebbachisaurus and Croatian Histriasaurus, two Rebbachisaurs from the early-mid Cretaceous, and found similarities in the shape of the spine as well as their structural characteristics. This would make this giant sauropod the most basal of all members of Rebbachisauridae and means that other Rebbachisaurs split from basal diplodocids in the mid-Jurassic Period and went on their own evolutionary path.
Carpenter named it Maraapunisaurus fragillimus, using the Southern Ute Native American language for the name. As the Native Americans lived close by to where the fossils were found. For "Maraapuni" literally means, "Huge", so "Very Fragile Huge Lizard" was the name described to this titan.

In terms of size, Carpenter based the size off of Limaysaurus of South America but scaled up its proportions with the description Cope gave.

However, the sizes should be taken with a grain of salt, given the only known fossil was lost, and using estimates based on incomplete remains is always challenging to get right. One thing is certain, almost everyone can agree it was a massive animal, but it was not the largest Sauropod ever to evolve. However, many estimates have the animal coming in the range of approximately 90-110 feet long and weighing in at around 60-75 tons. So while not the largest of all Sauropods, with some Cretaceous Titanosaurs, possibly clocking in at over 80 tons, it was definitely one of the largest dinosaurs that lived in the Morrison. It dwarfed its more famous Diplodocid and Apatosaurine relatives in terms of size.

In terms of how this Sauropod looked, Rebbachisaurs have a distinctive high neural spines on their vertebra, which would have given it a pronounced humped section on its back. Its neck would have been shorter, possibly even almost horizontally oriented to the ground. Whereas its Diplodocid cousins probably held their necks in a half-vertical, half-horizontal posture to feed from the tops of conifers and tree ferns. With a more horizontal neck, it would've enabled it to graze off the ferns and horsetail that covered the vast floodplains and scrubland of the Morrison 150,000,000 years ago.
As a Rebbachisaur, its skull would have possessed a distinctive almost duckbilled-like snout, designed for clipping and stripping vegetation. However, unlike a duckbilled dinosaur, it would've just stripped and gulped down large quantities of food and processed it in its gut, no chewing would have been involved when feeding.

This dinosaur was among the largest of all sauropods that lived in the Morrison. While it was not gargantuan 200+ft long giant E.D. Cope had thought, it was still a massive and intriguing animal with a fascinating history.

NOTE THIS IS OUTDATED:

UPDATED HERE 2/5/2023
___________________________________________________________________________________________

Been a while since I did a sauropod. So I thought I'd do another Morrison giant and write about its intriguing history.

This is a dinosaur I modified from Alvin Abreu's Nigersaurus. I brought the legs more in-line, modified the posture, made the neural spines taller, neck wider, and modified the skin.
I actually made this before I made Episode 2 and I did want to use it in an early draft. However, it was from Colorado and I was targeting the location of Wyoming and with Diplodocus hallorum, and I learned that both were not contemporaries (separated by ~4,000,000 years).

Still, I think I did a decent job and gave it a distinctive color scheme.

In terms of size, I sort of went with a middle-of-the-road estimate between Carpenter's and Paul's estimates. For hip-height, I used Paleonerd01 's size chart and just estimated that the human was ~6ft, and I got around 24ft in hip height:
Mystery Solved: Maraapunisaurus fragillimus by Paleonerd01 on DeviantArt

Original Model made by Alvin Abreu:
Jurassic World Nigersaurus (Alvin Abreu) | ZT2 Download Library Wiki | Fandom