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Gordo (dinosaur)


Gordo's skull, but not his own. Gordo's real skull was not found when he was.

Gordo is the nickname given to a dinosaur skeleton exhibited at Toronto's Royal Ontario Museum. It is the largest dinosaur skeleton on display in Canada, and the largest of its species anywhere except for one in New York City.

The official name of the skeleton is ROM 3670. It is one of the most complete specimens of the genus Barosaurus in North America.[1][2] It is more than 90 feet (27 m) long. It is exhibited in the James and Louise Temerty Galleries of the Age of Dinosaurs, and can also be seen from the outside in the second floor windows.[3][4]

Recent history of the skeleton

In 1912, a Carnegie excavation team unearthed three nearly complete Barosaurus skeletons in a quarry in Utah.[5] The quarry has become part of the Dinosaur National Monument Fossil Quarry, where a number of complete dinosaur specimens have been unearthed since its discovery in 1909. More than 70 tons of material were collected from the site for the Carnegie Museum in Pennsylvania. Around 1962, a specimen from the Pennsylvania collection was transferred to the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) in Toronto, Canada, to be included in their new dinosaur gallery.[6] Once it arrived, it was put into storage, as the museum had run out of floor space in the gallery. The fossil material was left untouched for several years. In 2007, curator David Evans was looking for a sauropod specimen to add to the ROM's collection. (Barosaurus is in the sauropod category.) After reading an article detailing a specimen housed within the museum's collections, Evans found the specimen of Barosaurus that is now a centerpiece of ROM's dinosaur exhibit.[7]

 
Gordo's front end, with a Camptosaurus specimen and a Giraffatitan specimen in the background

Gordo is named for Gordon Edmunds, the curator who arranged for the skeleton to be brought to the ROM, and who had hoped to display it fully but was unable to.[8][9]

Gordo (dinosaur) Media

  • Life reconstruction of an individual rearing up to defend itself against a pair of Allosaurus

  • Size of the North American Upper Jurassic diplodocid sauropod Barosaurus lentus, scaled to specimen AMNH 6341. The human silhouette is from

  • Silhouette of man standing and facing forward.svg (CC0).*References* * Barosaurus skeletal diagram by Scott H

  • Gordo, Royal Ontario Museum skeleton, Toronto

  • One of the original tail vertebrae in multiple views

  • Mounted skeleton casts posed depicting a specimen rearing up to protect its young (now considered a Kaatedocus specimen) from an Allosaurus fragilis, American Museum of Natural History

  • Skull possibly belonging to Barosaurus (specimen CM 11255)

References

  1. ↑ Sibonney, Claire (12 December 2007). "Canadian museum unveils long, long-lost dinosaur". ca.reuters.com. Reuters. Retrieved 29 July 2019.
  2. ↑ Museum Secrets. [1]. The History Channel. (retrieved October 2013)
  3. ↑ Evans, David. "Iconic Must See Treasures of the ROM"[2] . Royal Ontario Museum, (retrieved October 2013)
  4. ↑ Paleontologyworld, March 16, 2021
  5. ↑ Tucciarone, Joe. Barosaurus "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 5 October 2013. Retrieved 2 October 2013.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)(retrieved October 2013)
  6. ↑ CTV.ca News Staff (2007). ROM to unveil rare dino bones found in basement.[3]
  7. ↑ Switek, Brian (2011). The Rediscovery of Gordo the Barosaurus [4] Smithsonian Institution. (retrieved October 2013)
  8. ↑ Anthony Reinhardt. A monster task - putting Gordo together, The Globe and Mail, Nov. 29, 2007.
  9. ↑ Zain Ahmed. Gordo the Barosaurus. Atlas Obscura. March 15, 2021.
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