25a. Slinking Diplodocus, 1909

Although Hay published his famous "Sprawling Diplodocus Landscape" in 1910, he had made his first argument for a splayed-out Diplodocus in 1908, and this first article received an enthusiastic reception from a German anatomist, Gustav Tornier. In this 1909 paper, Tornier attempted in great detail to reconstruct the Diplodocus leg bones so that the elbow/knee joints were at a nearly ninety degree angle. And at the end of the article, there was attached a striking folding plate (see right), with a new Diplodocus carnegii skeletal restoration according to Tornier's anatomical re-evaluation.

William J. Holland at the Carnegie Museum took great exception to Tornier's reconstruction, and in an article in 1910, Holland rebutted Tornier (and Hay) point by point.

Source

Tornier, Gustav. "Wie war der Diplodocus carnegii wirklich gebaut?" in: Sitzungsbericht der Gesellschaft naturforschender Freunde zu Berlin, Jahrgang 1909, pp. 193-209. This work is part of our History of Science Collection, but it was NOT included in the original exhibition.

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