Europe’s largest dinosaur?

A giant brachiosaurid cervical vertebra from the Wessex Formation (Early Cretaceous) of southern England

Darren Naish, David M. Martill,

School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Portsmouth,

Portsmouth PO1 3QL, UK

David Cooper,

Little Shate, Mill Lane, Brighstone, Newport, Isle of Wight PO30 4BU, UK

Kent A. Stevens

Department of Computer and Information Science, Deschutes Hall, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403, USA

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The Isle of Wight specimen( MIWG 7306) was compared to Brachiosaurus brancai (figures from Janensch, see below). From this vertebra the genus Angloposeidon was extrapolated. Here is the right lateral view of MIWG 7306.
The left lateral view of the posterior of the specimen, with clearly apparent left postzygapophysis and lateral fenestrae. Based on this, an attempt was made to match this vertebra with a best-fit counterpart in Brachiosaurus brancai, (based on the illustrations in Janensch) being the sixth cervical vertebra. Clearly the extrapolation of body size depends critically on the accuracy of this guess.

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