Field Museum of Natural History bulletin

• :.i aaaafcitgjtrt;' mumkLIBRARY OF THE OF ILLINOISUNIVERSITY AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN 607.05 F I V.4G-46 2 cop. SURVEY7OS January Bulletinof NaturalFieldMuseum1975 History &*&*, m JS -t*0m^^Jg^- **w '***«: ml $&&usaSiE yaffil ti -ft* 19752JAN £2 :««7r ^tffer '-**.. ™ 1 ,* t r ,,'#'*\, I ****";: €*fField Museum BRACHIOSAURUS: The DinosaurBiggest of Them All of Natural History DavidBy Young Bulletin 10 OUR ENVIRONMENT 1975January Vol. No. 146, 12 FIELD BRIEFS David M. WalstenEditor/Designer: Staff Writer: JacobsMadge Production: Oscar Anderson 14 THE SCULPTOR WHO COLLECTED BUTTERFLIES David M. WalstenBy 19 ASCENT OF MAN back AT FIELD MUSEUMJANUARY cover of EventsCalendar Coming COVER Field Museum of Natural History Field Museum at in northwesternpaleontologists camp Founded 1893 Colorado. Assistant curator Elmer S. and(left)Riggs H. W. Menke (center,geology preparator washing cooking Director: E. Leland Webber are on their to discover remains ofutensils) theway which was to be as theBrachiosaurus, recognized largest of all dinosaurs. Black tent isby wagon photographer's dark room. See 3.story, p. Board of Trustees Blaine Edward SmithJ. Yarrington, Byron President Mrs. Hermon SmithDunlap Gordon Bent Robert H. Strotz O. Bercher John W. SullivanHarry Bowen Blair William G. PhotosSwartchild, Jr. Stanton R. Cook E. Leland Webber William R. B.Dickinson, Jr. Julian Wilkins 12 D. 12 M.9, Walsten; (bottom), Jacobs; 16, 18Pages (top), (top, Thomas E. IIDonnelley bottom) D. Walsten. Mrs. Thomas E. II Life TrusteesDonnelley Marshall Field Nicholas Galitzine William McCormick Blair Paul W. Goodrich N. FieldJoseph Remick McDowell Clifford C. Gregg Melvoin SamuelHugo J. Insull, Jr. Field Museum of Natural Bulletin is publishedHistory monthly,Roscoe Miller William V. KahlerJ. combined Field Museum of Naturalexcept issue, byJuly/August William H. Mitchell M. McBainHughston Roosevelt Road at Lake Shore Illinois 60605.History, Drive, Chicago, Charles F. L PalmerMurphy, jr. James $6 a $3 a for schools. Members of theSubscriptions: year; year M. G. Searle Museum subscribe MuseumHarry Oliver, Jr. John through membership. Opinions authors are their own and do not reflect theJohn T. M. expressed by necessarilyPirie, Jr. John Simpson of Field Museum. Unsolicited are welcome.policy manuscriptsJohn S. Runnells Louis Ware Postmaster: Please send form 3579 to Field Museum of NaturalWilliam L. Searle J. Howard Wood Roosevelt Road at Lake Shore Illinois 60605.History, Drive, Chicago, ISSN: 0015-0703. Second class at III.postage paid Chicago,/Iu? !> IV5C FT 48V'4&~ BRACHIOSAURUS the biggest dinosaur them allof Davidby Young Hill?" asked the nice little"Riggs in dress be-lady purple-flowered sitting in Grandhind the desk thereception museum. "Does heJunction, Colorado, work here?" I"No, Madame," replied. "Riggs Hill is a place." The looked somewhatreceptionist and shuffled somenonplussed through rosters to a secondofficial-looking gain to think. "I've never heard of sheit," said "Where is it?"finally. "That's what I want to I re-know," plied. "What is it?" the Brachiosaurus"They dug up there a timelong ago." "A what?" "A dinosaur." she said with a smile of rec-"Oh," "Then have to talk toognition. you'll the paleontologist." The a formerpaleontologist, young Harvard fossilUniversity preparator named Lance was thatErikson, at mo- ment a of schoollecturing group visiting children on the of alifestyle thirty-foot At H. W. Menke, atright, geology preparator Field Museum from about 7898 to 1904, with the femur of Brachio-poses 675-pound saurus. Date of about 7907. Severalphoto months earlier Menke had assisted in exca- the fromfossil its bed in the Grandvating River of northwestern Colorado.Valley David is a for theYoung reporter Chicago Tribune Field Museum Bulletinsaurus mounted on the second floor indinosaur mounted behind him. heYes, Hall 38. It is the of the dino-knew Hill waswhere epitomeRiggs located; and, "Thunderwould take there. saurs, the the behe-he me Lizard,"yes, moth of"You Erikson "that's the creature in thebehemoths,know," said, old Sinclair Oil and thewhere found the Brachiosaurus." advertisements,they monster which chased the heroesA thousand miles to the east ofGrand the afterstands Field Museum through swamp KingJunction Chicago's Kong — abducted the maiden.an neoclassical structureimposing But unknown to those visitors whowhich has a main exhibition hall (Stanley stand and at BrontosaurusField to hold the gape (whichHall) large enough an error in classification is notentire Grand museum. byJunction really Brontosaurus but that"Brachiosaurus?" said FieldJohn Bolt, Apatosaurus)? room hides theMuseum's assistant curator of fossil ground-floor storagerep- bones of a creature eventiles and as he led me to a larger. Theyamphibians, to Brachiosaurus.floor room where the belongground storage the creature's bones arecreature's bones were hidden from Admittedly,pub- —not much to look at a total of less thanlic view. "It's here!"right seven andAnd it there in thewas; twenty, including presacraldimly lighted two caudal a fourroom the sacrum,vertebrae,temporary storage reposed a ofmortal remains of theribs, right coracoid, part pelvis,mosasaurs, mastodons, and fossil still encased a and a femur. There are nothumerus,mammals, many in the even of them to be reassembledprotective plaster jackets placed enough on them as into an exhibit. But the dimensions ofwereyears ago they dug from the rocks. them the Brachiosaurus as told those boneswere theAmong by bones of the Brachiosaurus taken arefrom staggering. Hill Forin 1900. the IndianRiggs example, Ziggy, huge Such is the fate of Brachio- in Brookfieldpoor elephant Zoo, weighs ap- saurus. He was the animal known seven tons. The of whichlargest proximately he calculates to a crea-weight belonged to have walked the face of the Brontosaurus in life has been calculated ture with aearth, neck feet It isforty long. and one of the most at to tons. A Brachio- too to whetheranonymous. thirty thirty-five early tell, however, Jen- of the thousands of visitors saurus has been calculated to sen's ofMany weigh (thesauropod family long- 2—who each Field Mu- more than twice that in the flesh! necked dinosaurs that includes Bronto-day pour through seum to marvel at the Bronto- A adult the tallest andstop huge healthy giraffe, saurus, Brachiosaurus, Diplodocus) stands seventeenanimal, feet is a Brachiosaurus or an newliving high. entirely The mounted Brachiosaurus skele-only genus. ton in in the Berlin So is the Brontosaurus soexistence, Museum, wellwhy stands feet tall. But known and theforty Brigham BrachiosaurusYoung gigantic A. so For theUniversity paleontologist James Jen- it isanonymous? answer, sen discovered near Grand torecently Junc- back a tonecessary go nearly century —nine cervical vertebrae America's Wildtion, Colorado, West of all places. In was still1877, Chicago rebuilding fromin 1879 named Brontosaurus from1. Marsh its famous fire of six earlier,years found at Como butsome bones Bluff, Wyo., and the of conversation wasmajor topic to be from athe bones later turned out genus still the Sioux Indian War in which Col. Evennamed Apatosaurus. thoughpreviously in the name Brontosaurus, whicherror, "thunder themeans lizard," public of the reconstructed Brachiosaurus icaught Drawing and has been used the Berlin Museum. Thepopularly inimagination only complete ever since. of this it stands 40reconstruction dinosaur, Museum2. Edwin H. Colbert of the American The skeleton was excavatedfeet high. by of Natural in 1962 calculated the in inGerman Tendaguru,History paleontologists of 14 different dinosaurs based on a ex-Tanzania,weight present-day during four-year and He esti- that ended in 1912. Forvolume comparison,body specific gravity. pedition at a maximum of H. W. Menke is shown with the Field Mu-mated Brontosaurus' weight to his seum femur. At 214 cm. the femur of35.8 but Brachiosaurus, long,tons; according Brachiosaurus is 11 cm. (aboutthe scales at an thecalculations, tipped amazing Tendaguru 4.3 than that of the Colorado85.63 tons. Museum No. inches)(American Novitates, longer Brachiosaurus.Brachiosaurus restoration (from Abel). 2076, 1972.) 1975January