Carl Wiman's sauropods: The Uppsala Museum of Evolution's collection

Abstract

The Museum of Evolution in Uppsala acquired a number of sauropod specimens under the tenure of Professor Carl Wiman. The most intensely studied of these are two partial skeletons, PMU 24705 (formerly PMU R 233) and PMU 24706 (formerly PMU R 234), excavated in Shandong (Shantung) Province, China, by Otto Zdansky, which form the basis for the species Euhelopus zdanskyi. These specimens were acquired by the Museum of Evolution in the 1920s and remain the subject of much interest among sauropod workers. The cranial anatomy, classification and the age of Euhelopus have been the subject of some debate. Other Chinese sauropod material in the Museum of Evolution collection includes three vertebrae (one cervical, one dorsal and one caudal) and an incomplete femur. The caudal vertebra has been recently referred to Diplodocoidea by some researchers and to Titanosauriformes by others. Incomplete sauropod remains, which may represent the topotype material of Alamosaurus sanjuanensis (the only named post-Cenomanian North American sauropod to date) in the Museum of Evolution collection from New Mexico, coupled with specimens from North American museums, may help resolve the validity of A. sanjuanensis as a taxon and the “sauropod hiatus” as either a real phenomenon or an artefact of the fossil record. The palaeontological significance of the Museum of Evolution's sauropod collection cannot be overstated. These important specimens continue to be a crucial resource for studies concerning sauropod taxonomy, phylogenetic systematics, evolution and functional morphology.

Keywords:

• Euhelopus
• Alamosaurus
• Sauropoda
• Titanosauriformes
• Titanosauria
• Cretaceous
• North America
• Asia

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank B.P. Kear (Uppsala Universitet, Uppsala, Sweden) for supporting this research; J.O.R. Ebbestad and P. Eriksson (both of Evolutionsmuseet, Uppsala, Sweden) for access to the Uppsala Museum of Evolution collection; T. Wigren for providing the illustration of the A. sanjuanensis cervical vertebra; J.O.R. Ebbestad for providing illustrations and images for this publication; M. Segelsjö (Uppsala Akademiska Sjukhus) for CT scanning the cranial elements of Euhelopus and R.M. Sullivan, J.O.R. Ebbestad, J.D. Harris and J.P. Nair for providing access to various publications. Reviews of this manuscript by P. Upchurch and R. M. Sullivan substantially improved the quality of this work. The translation of Wiman's 1929 paper, which was referred to many times in this work, is available online at http://www.paleoglot.org/files/Wiman%2029.pdf.