page_title: Supersaurus
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Supersaurus / History
caption_attribution_description: The supersaurus from a different angle, North American Museum of Ancient Life.
context_page_description: Supersaurus is a genus of diplodocid sauropod dinosaur that lived in North America during the Late Jurassic period. The type species, S. vivianae, was first discovered by Vivian Jones of Delta, Colorado, in the middle Morrison Formation of Colorado in 1972. The fossil remains came from the Brushy Basin Member of the formation, dating to about 153 million years ago. A potential second species, S. lourinhanensis, is known from Portugal and has been dated to a similar time.
context_section_description: The original fossil remains of Supersaurus were discovered in the Dry Mesa Quarry in 1972. This find yielded only a few bones: mainly the shoulder girdle, an ischium and tail vertebrae. Paleontologist James A. Jensen described Supersaurus; he designated a scapulocoracoid BYU 9025 (originally labeled as BYU 5500) as the type specimen. This shoulder girdle stood some 2.4 meters (8 ft) tall, if placed on end. The specimen was given the name "Supersaurus" informally as early as 1973, but was not officially described and named until more than a decade later, in 1985.
  Sauropod researcher Jack McIntosh at one time thought that the BYU Supersaurus material might represent a large species of Barosaurus but later felt that there was evidence for Supersaurus being a valid genus.
  A much more complete specimen WDC DMJ-021, was found in Converse County, Wyoming in 1986 by Brandon Flyr and Bart Lesco while out hiking and was reported to the people who owned the land at the time.  The discovery was later named "Jimbo" in 1996 by the family that purchased the land, it was described and assigned to Supersaurus in 2007. The specimen represented approximately 30% of the skeleton. Its bones are being held at the Wyoming Dinosaur Center. A comparison of WDC DMJ-021 and other specimens previously assigned to Supersaurus was done in order to help decide what material from the Dry Mesa Quarry belonged to the genus. It indicated that a series of tail vertebrae and an ulna may have belonged to some other diplodocid.
  Supersaurus is present in stratigraphic zone 5 of the Morrison, dating from the Tithonian.
caption: A reconstructed skeleton, Museum of Ancient Life, Utah, USA
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