Barosaurus lentus was for the longest time one of the most generic morisson sauropods, but a vertebrae might turn it into a monster
BYU 9024, a cervical that was attributed to supersaurus vivienae looks to be a barosaurus cervical instead, the scary thing is that despite it being nearly identical to the c9 of other barosaurus specimen,itβs twice as big,
this means that when a barosaurus neck is scaled up to the c9 you get a 17 meter long neck, this could make the full animal around 50 meters long, thatβs in the same range as the mythical giant amphicoelias, and has led some people to speculate if the amphicoelias fragimillus fossil was actually a falsely described barosaurus fossil.
https://svpow.com/2016/09/16/how-horrifying-was-the-neck-of-barosaurus/
This shows that the BYU 9024 cervical vertebrae, usually thought to belong to the Supersaurus probably actually belongs to a gigantic specimen of Barosaurus, the relative of Diplodocus known for its longer neck and ability to read in its hind legs to compensate its limited vertical movement range (though it had a very large horizontal range).
The vertebrae is exactly twice the dimensions (and eight times the mass) or the type Barosaurus' C9. This results in conservative proportions of 50m long, a weight of 100+tonnes (assuming 12.5+ tonnes is for the type specimen, though larger individuals are often also proportionally more robust) and a neck length of 17m.
This easily towers over the proportions of Argentinosaurus or Alamosaurus, and makes it a contender for largest land animal ever. While C9 is the most likely morphological layout, however, it is also possible this could be anything from a C7 to a C11. We don't have a C7 for the type specimen though, but we can guess the two other extremes, the minimal option and the maximal option.
The minimal option scales from the C11, resulting in a BYU 1.78 times as large and 5.64 times as massive as the type. This results in an animal 45m long, a 15m neck and a weight of 70.5+ tonnes. So even at minimum size, this animal towers over 99% of other dinosaurs in length and mass.
The maximal option on the other hand, scales from a C8 vertebrae (and yes, if it's a C7 it would be higher still), it results in a BYU 2.23 times as big and 11.09 times as massive as the type. This results in an animal 56m long, with a 19m neck and weighing 138.6+ tonnes. Not as realistic as C9, but with a fair possibility nevertheless.
Of course, all these scale ups assume that the giant Barosaurus has the same proportions as the type, which given sauropods, is far from guaranteed. The fossil record consistently shows us that larger sauropods have more robust bodies in one hand and proportionally longer necks in the other, so that further clouds the discussion. Nevertheless, this animal has to have been enormous.
What do you guys think of this?
