The real Bigfoot: a pes from Wyoming, USA is the largest sauropod pes ever reported and the northern-most occurrence of brachiosaurids in the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation

PeerJ

article

Anthony Maltese¹  Emanuel Tschopp²  Femke Holwerda³  David Burnham⁷ 

[1] Rocky Mountain Dinosaur Resource Center;Division of Paleontology;GeoBioTec, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade Nova de Lisboa;Museu da Lourinhã;Bayerische Staatssammlung für Paläontologie und Geologie;Department of Earth Sciences, Utrecht University;Biodiversity Institute, University of Kansas

关键词: Jurassic;    Morrison Formation;    Titanosauriformes;    North America;    Pes;    Brachiosauridae;   

DOI  :  10.7717/peerj.5250

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Inra

【 摘 要 】

A set of associated left pedal elements of a sauropod dinosaur from the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation in Weston County, Wyoming, is described here. Several camarasaurids, a nearly complete small brachiosaur, and a small diplodocid have been found at this locality, but none match the exceptionally large size of the pedal elements. Next to the associated pedal elements, an isolated astragalus, phalanx and ungual were found, which match the large metatarsals in size. The elements cannot be ascribed to diplodocids due to the lack of a ventral process of metatarsal I. Moreover, the morphology of metatarsal V has a broad proximal end, with a long and narrow distal shaft, which differs from Camarasaurus. The size of the material and a medially beveled distal articular surface of metatarsal IV imply an identification as a brachiosaurid. This is the largest pes ever reported from a sauropod dinosaur and represents the first confirmed pedal brachiosaur elements from the Late Jurassic of North America. Furthermore, this brachiosaur material (the pes and the small nearly complete specimen) is the northernmost occurrence of brachiosaurids in the Morrison Formation.

【 授权许可】

CC BY