Restoration of Haplocanthosaurus: a Late Jurassic sauropod whose remains are found in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming.Courtesy FunkMonk via Wikimedia CommonsThe partial remains of a somewhat rare sauropod dinosaur have been discovered in Old Snowmass, near Aspen, Colorado. Paleontologist John Foster of the Museum of Western Colorado in Grand Junction said that fossils of a Haplocanthosaurus were found by college student Mike Gordon in 2005 on land owned by his mom and stepfather. If you remember, Snowmass was the site near Aspen where a large collection of mammoths, mastodons, and other Ice Age mammals were uncovered back in 2010. This latest discovery is about six miles from the other site but in a much, much older rock layer. Foster said the Lower Morrison Formation, from where Haplocanthosaurus remains were collected dates back to the Late Jurassic, about 155-152 million years ago.

It's a very exciting find because few specimens of Haplocanthosaurus exist. The first were also found in Colorado, in Garden Park near Canon City, by Carnegie Museum of Natural History paleontologists William H. Utterback and John Bell Hatcher in 1901. The type specimens (H. priscus and H. utterbacki) were described by Hatcher in 1903. The fossils were prepared under the direction of chief preparator, Arthur S. Coggeshall.

Mounted skeleton of Haplocanthosaurus delfsi: Cleveland Museum of Natural HistoryCourtesy ScottRobertAnselmo via Wikimedia CommonsCompared to its larger and heavier long-necked, small-headed cousins such as Apatosaurus and Diplodocus, the Haplocanthosaurus was a relatively small-sized sauropod dinosaur with a length of 35 to 40 feet and weighing maybe 14 tons. While most sauropods have hollow spaces in their backbones, a distinguishing characteristic of Haplocanthosaurus is the solidness of its vertebrae which Foster confirmed by doing a scan of the fossil bones at a local hospital in Grand Junction.

Haplocanthosaurus hindlimb: Science Museum of MinnesotaCourtesy Mark RyanThe only mounted specimen of Haplocanthosaurus is the referred species (H. delphsi) on exhibit at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History in Ohio. No skull of the sauropod has ever been found so the head is just a fabricated guess. Other post-cranial remains exist, including some here at the Science Museum of Minnesota that were collected in Wyoming, but in general fossils of the dinosaur are rare. Material from only 10 individuals are known.

So far the Old Snowmass site has provided some vertebrae, ribs and a pelvis. but the landowners have been very accommodating in allowing the museum access to the dig site, and Foster hopes to find more Haplocanthosaurus bones - maybe even some skull material - in the coming summer season.

SOURCES and LINKS
Aspen Times story
More Haplocanthosaurus info
Osteology of Haplocanthosaurus by John Bell Hatcher
Jurrassic West: The Dinosaurs of the Morrison Formation and Their World by John Foster