Giraffatitan brancai UNCENSORED!

Giraffatitan brancai

Family: Brachiosauridae (intermediate position)
Time: Late Jurassic, Kimmeridgian-Tithonian epochs, ~150 mya
Location: Tendaguru Formation, Tanzania (the lower, middle, and upper "Saurian Marls")
Estimated mass: ~33 tons (subadult HMN SII/S116/Aa) up to ~50 tons (HMN XV2/HMN Fund no.)

*Now COMPLETELY REVISED and updated with fully restored original measurements and oft-overlooked rare specimens!*

They got Giraffatitan wrong! Dr. Werner Janensch’s giant brachiosaur, Giraffatitan brancai, has been controversial for many reasons, in debates ranging through everything from metabolism and posture to maximum size and heat management, but one of the greatest controversies has been over the many restorations of its skeleton over the years. It has come to light that these older versions, even some considered accurate today, contain incorrectly scaled and articulated bones, inaccurately drawn bones, and even some outright fabrications. Nearly ever part of Giraffatitan's skeleton was published from multiple specimens by Janensch in 1922, 1935-36, and 1950, and the most complete one, the subadult paralectotype HMN SII, was used as the basis for the Berlin mount and most skeletal restorations. Yet these skeletals fabricated certain bones, omitted bones, assumed incorrect placements, used specimens other than the ones most morphologically relevant to SII, misinterpreted Janensch’s notes, and made some parts oversized while distorting the true form for other parts of the animal. Many of these older skeletals were composited far more than necessary, making needlessly heavy use of scaled-up juvenile material for bones already known from SII (thus confusing the proportions), or in some cases even threw in bones that may not be Giraffatitan at all.

If you have seen one of these older restorations of Giraffatitan, then you have not seen the real Giraffatitan which is found only in this new Paleo King reconstruction.

For the first time, a modern, easy to understand, truly complete and uncensored reconstruction of Giraffatitan has been completed which reveals more than any past skeletal reconstruction. This beautifully detailed rendition is also the first Giraffatitan skeletal available as a signature print for purchase. The basic lateral view is also available as a print: paleo-king.deviantart.com/art/…

Included here for the first time in history, scaled up to SII, are a complete atlas (HMN t) and axis (HMN be 1) from true Giraffatitan specimens, never before depicted outside of Janensch, which compare very well with the elongated HMN SII but present a very different profile from the shorter, steeper vertebrae in the problematic lectotype HMN SI used in older reconstructions as a gap-filler. In addition, the long-forgotten proatlas of HMN SII is here restored for the first time. Also shown here is the never-before-included last dorsal vertebra HMN Fund no 8, designated as the twelfth dorsal, with the posterior dorsals moved forward one space and one of two speculative plaster mid-dorsals eliminated to allow the shift while still keeping the count at 12. This arrangement actually restores Janensch’s original 1950 sequencing of the dorsal vertebrae, which has been IGNORED in all other skeletal reconstructions (which mislabeled the fused posterior dorsals D10 and D11 as being D11 and D12.)

Also restored here for the first time are the original skull of SII (HMN S116) which replaces the smaller HMN t skull used in most older skeletals, and the hyoid bones scaled up from HMN S66.  100% new full frontal and dorsal views, including an updated sacrum, which has never been accurately restored from above before by any artist (most notably, GSP’s version actually censored the angles of the sacral rib articulations and completely omitted the holes between them). Cross-scaling the ilium, sacrum and pubes of HMN SII/Aa with the ilium, ischium and pubes of the younger HMN J, also reveals that the hips of Giraffatitan were considerably more bottom-heavy than resored by either Paul (1988) or Taylor (2009). The tail is re-scaled to the correct measurements of HMN Aa, which also included the mounted sacrum and is probably from the same individual as SII. It is significantly smaller than the tail used in the Berlin composite mount, HMN Fund no., a tail from a giant specimen around 13% larger than SII, which may belong to the colossal HMN XV2 and also includes the aforementioned 12th dorsal. Even more so than expected from previous restorations, Giraffatitan had a really small tail for a sauropod of its size.
 
Basic documentation of the first step of the restoration process back to the actual specimens Janensch found: paleoking.blogspot.com/2014/03…   The rest follows on my blog in installments.

Giraffatitan brancai: UNCENSORED takes a look at this famous yet misunderstood dinosaur like no one has before and explains many elements that have confused both scientists and amateur dinosaur fans alike. We also see revealed several never-before-revealed skeletal components and limb-joint cutaways taken directly from the engravings in Janensch’s publications, that were quietly omitted from past full-body reconstructions, and even neglected in the recent RCI recast and remount of the Berlin composite skeleton.

World-famous as the tallest animal ever mounted in a museum, the east African Giraffatitan brancai was for many years considered a species of Brachiosaurus fav.me/d4slf2d , not least by the German paleontologists who discovered and prepared it. Yet it is confirmed since Taylor (2009) that Giraffatitan is a distinct and more extreme animal, with a shorter torso, longer neck, and even longer arms than the long-armed Brachiosaurus itself. It was also probably a bit lighter. The mounted skeleton in Berlin is primarily based on HMN SII, a teenage specimen around 75 ft. long and 33 tons as opposed to the 37 ton B. altithorax type specimen (which coincidentally was also a teenager). Both animals likely grew 15% bigger as adults, as evidenced by a large Giraffatitan fibula, HMN XV2.

The Humboldt Museum in Berlin houses all of the known Giraffatitan material, which comprises multiple individuals and growth stages, including skull material from four specimens. Though none of the specimens are complete, this animal is far better represented in the fossil record than Brachiosaurus, and the many overlapping remains allow for a very accurate skeletal rendition. This reconstruction was done using the nearly complete neck of HMN SII, without including any of the proportionally shorter HMN SI material which is typically frankensteined onto it by Greg Paul and others. The end result is a naturally longer neck than has often been depicted. The original skull of HMN SII (HMN S116) is fully restored here, indicating a much larger nose than the more immature HMN t1 scaled up and cast in the Berlin remount, as well as possible sexual dimorphism in this species.

Giraffatitan shared the tropical coastal conifer forests of Tendaguru with other endemic plant-eaters like the stegosaur Kentrosaurus, the small diplodocoid Dicraeosaurus, the bipedal ornithopod Dryosaurus, the barosaurine Tornieria, the diplodocid Australodocus, the putative camarasaur Tendaguria, fellow brachiosaur "The Archbishop" (which had an even longer neck!) and the mysterious "first titanosaur", Janenschia, which was more likely a robust acrofornican similar to Tangvayosaurus. Predators in the area included large allosaurs ("Allosaurus" tendaguriensis) and ceratosaurs ("Ceratosaurus" ingens) which are badly in need of redescription, and the odd small theropod Elaphrosaurus.

I reviewed and checked every line in Janensch’s papers, and for the first time, Giraffatitan is available in a detailed yet easy to understand version that leaves nothing out. This long road of research and sweat from the development of a new restoration from all available data on all known specimens has revealed hundreds of errors in past scientific restorations of the skeleton. Now you can discover previously unknown aspects to this remarkable and legendary animal and understand it as no one has before. There are many secrets in the bones of Giraffatitan brancai. They have remained hidden by poor and inaccurate skeletals since the days of Janensch’s original description, despite the plethora of excellent engravings of the individual bones that he published. Here, finally, the majestic animal's true nature is revealed.

As usual, this groundbreaking skeletal contains no GSP. Also no Hartman, no Larramendi, and no Czerkas for those keeping track.

This image has also been credited as inspiration by:
spinoinwonderland.deviantart.c…


References:

Janensch, W. (1914). "Übersicht über der Wirbeltierfauna der Tendaguru-Schichten nebst einer kurzen Charakterisierung der neu aufgeführten Arten von Sauropoden." Archiv für Biontologie, 3 (1): 81–110.

Janensch, W. (1922). "Das Handskelett von Gigantosaurus robustus und Brachiosaurus brancai aus den Tendaguru-Schichten Deutsch-Ostafrikas". Centralblatt für Mineralogie, Geologie und Paläontologie 1922(15):464-480.

Janensch, W. 1935-36. Die Schädel der Sauropoden Brachiosaurus, Barosaurus und Dicraeosaurus aus den Tendaguru-Schichten Deutsch-Ostafrikas. Palaeontographica, Supplement 7 1(2):147-298.

Janensch, W. (1950a). "Die Skelettrekonstruktion von Brachiosaurus brancai". Palaeontographica, Supplement 7 (I, 3):97-103.

Janensch, W. (1950c). "Die Wirbelsäule von Brachiosaurus brancai". Palaeontolographica, Supplement, 7:27-93.

Paul, G.S. (1988). "The brachiosaur giants of the Morrison and Tendaguru with a description of a new subgenus, Giraffatitan, and a comparison of the world's largest dinosaurs". Hunteria, 2(3): 1–14. (Yes I have read the paper, and no, I did not copy Paul's skeletal - which is anatomically flawed in several ways.)

Taylor, M.P. (2009). "A Re-evaluation of Brachiosaurus altithorax Riggs 1903 (Dinosauria, Sauropod) and its generic separation from Giraffatitan brancai (Janensch 1914)." Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 29(3): 787-806. www.miketaylor.org.uk/dino/pub…