STL Science Center

STL Science Center

14 December 2011

Supersaurus 400th Entry

Oh!, that Vivian and Eddie Jones!
Supersaurus was found by Vivian Jones, no not this Vivian Jones or even that Vivian Jones. No, Vivian and Eddie Jones were Uranium prospecting after Word War II, looking in Wyoming for Uranium deposits they could sell to the US military in 1972, when they came across a large fossilized bone (there are other versions that state they were merely rock hounding as amateur geologists, but I think Jensen's version of the story is much more awesome). That bone turned out to be a scapularcaracoid, a shoulder girdle, from one of the largest animals to ever grace the face of the Earth. It wasn't until 1985 that James Jensen named the animal Supersaurus and not until the mid 1990's when the other two animals he named in that were found in the area, Ultrasaurus (Ultrasauros) and Dystylosaurus, were decided to be parts of Supersaurus specimens. in 1996, to be specific, a Supersaurus named Jimbo was unearthed in Wyoming that helped put the argument over the three species to rest and made them all one. Jimbo now lives at the Wyoming Dinosaur Center in Thermopolis, Wyoming.

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