https://svpow.com/2025/11/26/tutorial-48-my-museum-collections-kit/ Sauropod Vertebra Picture of the Week SV-POW! ... All sauropod vertebrae, except when we're talking about Open Access. ISSN 3033-3695 Tutorial 48: my museum collections kit November 26, 2025 [collections-kit-1-everything-laid-out-labeled] I was on the road for most of August, September, and October, and in particular I made a ton of museum collections visits. When I visit a museum collection, I bring a specific set of gear that helps me get the photos, notes, and measurements that I want. All of this is YMMV -- I'm not trying to predict what will work best for you, but to explain what has worked for me, and why. I'm reasonably happy with my current setup, but even after 28 years of museum visits, I'm still finding ways to improve it. Hence this post, which will hopefully serve as a vehicle for sharing tips and tricks. A word about my program when I visit a collection, because not everyone needs or wants to do things my way. The closest museums with extensive sauropod collections are states away from where I live and work. If I'm in those collections at all, I'm traveling, and therefore on the clock. Time in collections is a zero-sum game: if I have the time to take 20 pages of notes, that could be 4 pages of notes of each of 5 specimens, 2 pages on 10, 1 page on 20, half a page on 40, etc. In practice, I usually make expansive notes early in the visit, one or two spreads per specimen with detailed sketches and exhaustive measurements of the most publication-worthy elements. I grade toward brevity over the course of the visit, and end with a mad desperate rush, throwing in crude sketches and rudimentary notes on as many newly-discovered (by me) specimens as possible. My collections visits are Discovery Time and Gathering Time, trying to get all the measurements and photographs I'll want for the next year, or five, or forever. And, to the extent that I can suppress them, not Analysis Time or Graphing Time or Writing Time -- I can do those things after hours and in my office back home, IF and only if I've spent my collections time efficiently gathering all the information I'll need later. The very first thing I do in any collection is a walking survey, to make sure I know roughly what specimens the collection contains and where to find them. For a sufficiently large collection -- or even a single cabinet with 10 drawers of good stuff -- I may draw a map in my notebook, on which I can note things I want to come back and document, and add new things as I find them. Enough preamble, on to the gear. The first two or three entries here are in strict priority order, and after that things get very fuzzy and approximate. [collections-kit-2-research-notebook-covers] 1. Research Notebook Seems obvious, right? Write stuff down, make sketches, capture the info that will be difficult or impossible to recapture later from photos. I have encountered people who don't take a physical notebook, just a laptop or tablet, and take all their notes digitally. If that works for you, may a thousand gardens grow. For me, sketching is a fundamental activity -- for fixing morphology in my mind, disciplining myself to see the whole object and its parts, creating a template on which to take further explanatory notes, and capturing the caveats, stray ideas, and odd connections that surround each specimen in a quantum fuzz in my mind (temporarily in my mind, hence the need for external capture). I also write priority lists in advance of specimens to document each day, and then cross them off, add new ones, and strike out duds with wild abandon in the heat of data collection. [collections-kit-3-research-notebook-spines] I do a few specific things to increase the usefulness of my notebooks: - Label the spines and covers with the notebook titles and years. These things live on the shelf directly over my desk, and I pull them down and rifle through them constantly. I also have notebooks for university service (committees, student advising, and so on), astronomical observations, and personal journaling, so "Research" is a useful tag for me. - Number the pages, if they're not already numbered, use the books chronologically from front to back, and create the table of contents retrospectively as I go -- a tip I got from the Bullet Journal method. [collections-kit-4-research-notebook-pocket] - Paste a small envelope inside the back cover, if a pouch is not already built in, to hold all kinds of ephemera -- index cards, scale bars, a bandage (just in case), stickers I acquire along the way, etc. [collections-kit-5-notebook-scale-bar] - Affix a section of measuring tape to the outer edge of the front or back cover. I got this tip from the naturalist John Muir Laws, whose Laws Guide to Nature Drawing and Journaling is wonderfully useful and inspiring (UPDATE: that book is now covered in its own post, here). The scale-bar-permanently-affixed-to-research-notebook has been a game-changer for me. Do you know how many times I've accidentally left a scale bar on a museum shelf, and then gotten to my next stop and had to borrow or fabricate one? I myself lost count long ago. But never again. If I'm in a hurry, small specimens go straight onto the notebook to be photographed, like the baby apatosaurine tibia above, and the notebook itself goes into the frame with large specimens. (This comes up again -- if possible, and it's almost always possible, put the specimen label in the photo with the specimen. No reason not to, and sometimes a lifesaver later on.) [collections-kit-6-ikea-paper-tape-folded] Behold the thinness of the eminently pocketable IKEA paper tape. Folding instructions, because this seems to bedevil some folks: hold up one end, fold in half by grabbing the other end and bring it up in front, then do that three more times. Finished product is 65mm long, 25.4mm wide, and about 1mm thick when folded crisply and left under a heavy book overnight. 2. Measuring tapes I find the flexible kind much more convenient and useful than retractable metal tape measures. I like the 1-2mm thick plastic type used by tailors and fabric sellers, because they have just enough inertia to stay where I put them, or drop in a predictable fashion when draped over something sufficiently large, as when measuring midshaft circumference of a long bone. I LOVE the little plasticized paper tapes that hang on racks, free for the taking, near the entrances of IKEA stores. I tear them off by the dozen when I go to IKEA, cram them in my pockets, fold them flat when I get home, and stash them everywhere, including in my wallet. A few specific reasons they're great: - Folded flat, they're about the thickness of a credit card, so there's just no reason to be without one. I usually have one in my wallet, another in the envelope at the back of my research notebook, a couple more stashed in my luggage, a couple more stashed in my car, desk, tookbox, nightstand, etc. - I can write on them. Especially handy if: - I've torn off a section to serve as an impromptu scale bar. Which I never hesitate to do, because they're free and I have dozens waiting in my toolbox and desk drawers at any one time. Torn off bits also make good bookmarks, classier, more cerebral, and less implicitly gross than the traditional folded square of toilet paper. - I give them away to folks I'm traveling with, or that I meet in my travels, and they're usually well-received. [collections-kit-7-highlighter-in-action] I would NOT have figured out all these laminae if I hadn't had a way to make them stand out. 3. Writing instruments in various colors Up until about 2018 my notebooks were always monochrome pen or pencil. Then I realized that color is an extremely helpful differentiator for Future Matt, so now I highlight and color-annotate willy-nilly. 4. Calipers I borrowed the digital calipers from Colin Boisvert to get the photo up top, having forgotten my own at home. As a sauropod worker, I don't need sub-millimeter accuracy all the time. But digital calipers have three exceedingly useful functions: measuring the thickness of very thin laminae and bony septa; measuring the internal dimensions of small fossae and foramina; and measuring the depth of fossae and of concave articular surfaces. I also have a little titanium caliper on a lanyard that goes with me most places. 5. Small brush on a carabiner This is the newest addition to the kit. I got the idea from Matthew Mossbrucker at the Morrison Museum in Morrison, Colorado. Colin and I visited him in September, immediately before our week-long stint in the collections at Dinosaur Journey. Matthew keeps a little brush carabinered to his belt at all times, and the utility was so instantly obvious that when Colin and I rolled into Fruita later that same day, I went to the hardware store and got my own. Cheap, weighs nothing, clips to anything, compact enough to cram in a pocket, good for lab and field alike. Genius! 6. Scale bar Yes, I have my scale-bar-enhanced research notebook and my hoarder stash of IKEA paper tapes, but good old-fashioned scale bars are still useful, and I use them constantly. And lose them constantly, hence my multiple redundant backup mechanisms. (Aside: I can't explain why I hold onto some objects like grim death, but let others fall through my fingers like sand grains. I've only lost one notebook of any kind in my entire life -- set it on top of the car while packing and then drove off [grrrr] -- so I have no problem investing in nice notebooks and treating them like permanent fixtures. But I can't hang onto pens and scale bars to save my life, hence my having gravitated to Bic sticks and IKEA paper tapes.) 7. Index cards I try to get as much information into each photograph as possible. Ideally alongside the specimen I will have: - a scale bar at the appropriate depth of field; - the specimen tag with the number, locality, and other pertinent info; - my notebook open to my sketch of the specimen, for easy correlation later (I don't do this for every single view, just the ones that I think are particularly publication-worthy, or have info I'm likely to forget later); - anything else I might want -- serial position, anatomical directions, whether the photo is part of an anaglyph pair, and so on -- written on an index card, which being a standard size will itself serve as an alternate/backup scale bar. 8. Pencil case To hold all the smaller fiddly bits you see in the photo up top. I can't now fathom why, but I resisted getting one of these for a loooong time. I was young and foolish then. Pretty useful all the time, absolutely clutch when it's 4:58 pm and I'm throwing stuff in bags, caught between the Scylla of working as late as possible and the Charybdis of wanting to be polite to whatever kind, patient person is facilitating my visit. That is also when the pocket in the back of the notebook comes in especially handy. [collections-kit-8-headlamp-in-action] Headlamp in action, casting low-angle light on a pneumatic fossa on the tuberculum of this sauropod rib. Note also the scale bar, elevated on a specimen box to be the same depth of field, and the notebook open to my sketch of the specimen. 9. Artificial lighting This was another very late discovery for me -- I don't think I was regularly bringing my own lights prior to 2018. For me, portable, rechargeable lighting is useful in many circumstances and absolutely critical in two: casting low-angle light to pick out subtle pneumatic features, as in the photo above, and lighting up big specimens that I don't have the time, energy, or space to pull off the shelves, as in the photo below. [collections-kit-9-portable-light-in-action] I'm particularly taken with the big orange fan/light combo. It charges using a USB-C cable, has four settings for fan speed (handy when it's hot, humid, or just oppressively still) and three for light intensity, a rotating hook that folds flat, and a USB power-out socket for charging phones, headlamps, fitness trackers, and what have you. I use it practically every day whether I'm on the road or not. [collections-kit-10-flashlight-in-action] Magnetic flashlight hanging from steel shelving to illuminate Camarasaurus cervical vertebrae in the Utah Field House collections. Whether it's a hook or a magnet, some kind of mechanism for suspending a light at odd heights and angles is super useful. I usually have a strong flashlight with an integral seat-belt cutter and window-smasher in the door pocket of my car, and its magnetic base makes it omnidirectionally functional in collections spaces, which are usually liberally supplied with steel in the form of shelving and cabinets. [collections-kit-11-cm-879-cd2-with-flashlight-scale-stand] Haplocanthosaurus CM 879 caudal 2 in left lateral view, with rolled-up paper neural canal visualizer and scale-bar-stuck-to-flashlight. Sometimes I use a bit of blue tack to stick a scale bar to a flashlight, to create a free-standing, truly vertical scale bar that I can rapidly place at different distances from the camera. Beats leaning the scale bar against a stack of empty specimen boxes or a block of ethofoam (which in turn beats nothing at all). What else? USUALLY -- Laptop Not for recording notes or measurements -- all of that goes into the notebook, which I scan and upload new stuff from every evening. Mostly for displaying PDFs of descriptive monographs, and hugely useful in that regard. [collections-kit-12-mwc-7257-with-monograph] MAYBE -- Monographs When I have the freedom (= baggage allowance) to do so, I find it handy to bring hardcopies of descriptive monographs, both for quick reference and so I can photograph specimens alongside the illustrations. Doesn't even have to be the same specimens, just comparable elements. In the photo above, MWC 7257, a partial sacral centrum of Allosaurus from the Mygatt-Moore Quarry, is sitting next to a plate from Madsen (1976), illustrating the same vertebra in a specimen from Cleveland Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry. Thanks to Colin Boisvert for bringing the specimen to my attention -- I've got a longstanding thing for sacrals -- and for loaning me his copy of Madsen (1976) for this photo. OUT -- Camera and tripod I suspect that some folks will shake their heads in mute horror, but after a couple of decades of lugging dedicated cameras and tripods everywhere, I stopped. For the past few years I've been rolling with just my phone, which is objectively better than any dedicated camera I owned for the first half of my career. Sometimes I brace it in an ad hoc fashion against a chair or shelf or cabinet, but mostly I just shoot freehand. For my purposes, it does fine, and any minor improvements in field curvature or whatever that I'd get from a dedicated camera don't outweigh the logistical hassle. Again: YMMV! Over to you So, that's what I roll with right now. It was different six months ago, and will almost certainly be a little different six months hence, hopefully as a result of people responding to this post. With all that said: what's in your kit? P.S. Many thanks to Matthew Mossbrucker and Julia McHugh for their hospitality and assistance in their collections, and to Colin Boisvert for being such a great travel companion, research sounding board, and generous loaner-of-things-I'd-forgotten. The Wedel-Boisvert Morrisonpocalypse 2025 deserves more blogging. [colin-and-matt-in-dinosaur] Share this: * Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook * Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit * Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X * Like Loading... Related Posted by Matt Wedel Filed in Allosaurus, camarasaurs, Carnegie Museum, caudal, cervical, collections, Dinosaur Journey Museum of Western Colorado, diplodocids , dorsal, Giant Oklahoma apatosaurine, how the sausage is made, measuring things, museums, notebook, OMNH, People we like, photography, ribs, sacral, stinkin' appendicular elements, stinkin' mammals, stinkin' SV-POW!sketeers, stinkin' theropods, tibia, tools, travel, Tutorial, Utah Field House of Natural History 8 Comments >> 8 Responses to "Tutorial 48: my museum collections kit" 1. Brad Lichtenstein's avatar Brad Lichtenstein Says: November 27, 2025 at 7:58 pm Good to hear from you! Fun! Bravo! And happy thanksgiving! 2. Matt Wedel's avatar Matt Wedel Says: November 27, 2025 at 9:47 pm Thank you! Happy Thanksgiving back atcha! 3. xabier otxoa's avatar xabier otxoa Says: November 29, 2025 at 11:39 am Those are some really nice notebooks! Do you know where can I get the first from the left? Also very interesting is the Allo 4th sacrum--quite large! (Small by sauropod standards, I know.) The size of some of the Mygatt-Moore Allosaurus remains has been overlooked in the literature; some approach and even exceed that of the Bone Cabin individuals. None of these (M-M, BC) have been described in sufficient detail. 4. Matt Wedel's avatar Matt Wedel Says: November 29, 2025 at 7:27 pm All of those notebooks are in the 6x9"'Hypothesis' line from Cognitive Surplus. They're not cheap, but they're very pretty and very sturdy, and if I'm going to have a notebook as my constant companion for a year, I don't mind paying a little more for something I'll actually look forward to using. They're also not punitively expensive, and they go on sale now and then, so I tend to load up periodically. In some ways the Leuchtturm1917 notebooks are nicer, in that each comes with a rear cover pocket, a second ribbon bookmark, and numbered pages. But for me the Cognitive Surplus books win on form factor -- the 6x9 size is in my personal Goldilocks zone -- IMHO better lay-flat pages, (very subjective) hand feel, and pretty covers. I'm a notebook addict and I've used all the well-known brands (Moleskine, Rodia, Rite-in-the-Rain, Paperblanks, Field Notes, etc) and many of the obscure ones, and I keep coming back to Cognitive Surplus books for professional and archival purposes. Although I pretty much always have a Field Notes book tucked in my pocket for EDC use. And I am always happy to yap about this stuff. 5. 0xPsi's avatar 0xPsi Says: November 30, 2025 at 6:21 pm love the discovery vs analysis time split. tiny gremlin question: when you do that first walking survey, do you move cabinet-by-cabinet like a slow dungeon crawl, or more like chaotic comet orbits that only later crystallize into a map in the notebook? 6. Matt Wedel's avatar Matt Wedel Says: December 1, 2025 at 9:35 am Oooh, that is such a great question. It's usually recursive. The first time I come into a new (to me) collection, figuring out where to find the fossils of interest is part of a larger logistical wayfinding. That also includes learning from my hosts where I can drop my stuff, where I'll be working (if those are different places), how to get to the restroom and back, where folks' offices are if I have questions or need help, and so on. By the end of that, I usually know the general area to survey, on the level of "big sauropod bones on these shelves, all the smaller Morrison bits in these cabinets, Cretaceous stuff down there". That's usually in the first 10-15 minutes. Then I unpack the gear I'll be using that day onto whatever table, desk, carrell, or cart I've been provided, open my notebook to a fresh spread, write down the collection, day, date, any travel companions, and who I'm visiting, and briefly review what I'm expecting or hoping to find. Doing all that only takes a few minutes, but it's a deliberate interrupt, a moment of stillness for switching gears. The movement before was about getting me, outside researcher, situated in the building geographically, logistically, and administratively -- basically, me learning how to interface with the everything but the fossils. The movement after is all about the fossils -- getting the scope of the collection, or at least the part I'm interested in, fixed in my head, so I can use my time wisely, see as much as possible, and not get caught at the end with half a dozen cabinets unopened. I don't think I've ever drawn a map immediately. It's an emergent thing, when I realize that although I had planned to spend most of my time documenting a certain set of n specimens, there are actually between 2n and 10n specimens I need to get eyes on at least briefly, and I need to not forget that they exist, or where they're located. The comparison of going through cabinets to dungeon crawling is apt. And to finally answer your question, that's not part of the walking survey. Survey mode is quick and kinetic and head-swiveling-everywhere -- I want to be distracted by new things, so I'll know that they exist and can document them later. That makes survey mode a very bad match for handling bulky, fragile fossils. Once I've gotten the layout, identified a set of things I want to take my time measuring and photographing, and come up with a priority list, I'll switch gears again. Data-gathering mode is slow and careful and hyper-focused on the specimen right in front of me. If I do my job right, then in 6 month or 3 years when I'm sitting at my desk in a different time zone, I'll have everything I'll need to reacquaint myself with the specimen and answer whatever questions Future Me will have about it. And in 30 or 300 years, the specimen will be in at least as good of shape as I found it. Sauropod vertebrae are frightfully easy to break, and they can be very tricky to repair. A lot of the care and forethought isn't just about getting what I need, but making sure the specimen is safe as possible in the process. Anyway, recursion: orient to building -> orient to collection -> orient to stuff I'm interested in -> orient to specimen, repeat the last 2-3 steps as needed. I tend to do additional mini-walking tours in between documenting specimens, to stretch my legs and double-check that I'm not missing the forest. Hope this helps! 7. Book Week 2025, Day 6: The Laws Guide to Nature Drawing and Journaling, by John Muir Laws | Sauropod Vertebra Picture of the Week Says: December 3, 2025 at 9:13 pm [...] Laws's chosen field is natural history, but you could apply his ideas on noticing things, asking questions, making connections, and creating iteratively to all kinds of things: baking techniques, physical exercises, lawn mower engines, you name it. So a book with a seemingly specific remit, observing nature, actually is about becoming a better observer, and a better learner, in general. UPDATE: I should have thought to include this the first time around -- Laws has just tons of great resources on his website, including a lot of freely-downloadable inserts and templates in the store to help with observation and drawing. One of them, the ruler sticker, is where I got the idea for affixing IKEA paper tapes to the cover of my research notebook. [...] 8. Jiao Cheng 48:Wo De Bo Wu Guan Shou Cang Pin Tao Zhuang - Pian Zhi De Ma Nong Says: December 6, 2025 at 3:18 pm [...] Xiang Qing Can Kao [...] Leave a comment [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] D[ ] This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. << How -- and where -- should we measure neural canal diameter? Book Week 2025, Day 1: Speed Thief Vol 1, by Sean Hennessy >> * Support SV-POW! Become a Patron! * Search Search for: [ ] [Search] * Recent Posts + Book Week 2025, Day 8: Jurassic West, 2nd edition, by John Foster + Book Week 2025, Day 7: Three favorites by Knut Schmidt-Nielsen + Book Week 2025, Day 6: The Laws Guide to Nature Drawing and Journaling, by John Muir Laws + Book Week 2025, Day 5: The Last Days of the Dinosaurs, by Riley Black + Book Week 2025, Day 4: Otherlands, by Thomas Halliday * Recent Comments Andy Farke's avatar Andy Farke on Book Week 2025, Day 3: Dungeon... Matt Wedel's avatar Matt Wedel on Book Week 2025, Day 3: Dungeon... Matt Wedel's avatar Matt Wedel on Book Week 2025, Day 2: The Ris... Mike Taylor's Mike Taylor on Book Week 2025, Day 3: avatar Dungeon... Mike Taylor's Mike Taylor on Book Week 2025, Day 3: avatar Dungeon... * Pages + About SV-POW! + What they're saying about SV-POW! + Tutorials + The Shiny Digital Future + Things to Make and Do + Videos by SV-POW!sketeers + Human anatomy study materials + Supersaurus, Ultrasaurus and Dystylosaurus in the 21st Century + Your noun is adjective + How adjective was taxon? + Engaging with the media + Posts on Paleoart + Mike's open projects + Neural canal projects + All the Museum Abbreviations + Checklist for new zoological genus and species names [DRAFT v3] + Open Access Bio and Paleo [UNMAINTAINED] + Papers by SV-POW!sketeers o Van der Linden et al. (2025) on introduction to diplodocoids o Taylor et al. (2025) on the composition on the Carnegie Diplodocus o Boisvert et al. (2025) Haplocanthosaurus census o Danison et al. (2024) on Saurophaganax/Allosaurus anax o Atterholt et al (2024) on neural canal ridges in dinos o Boisvert et al (2024) on Dry Mesa Haplocanthosaurus o Wedel (2024) on sauropod bauplan and taphonomy o King et al (2024) on pneumatic ribs in apatosaurs o Windholz et al. (2024) on a pneumatic rebbachisaurid caudal o Taylor and Wedel (2023) on pneumatic Brachiosaurus ribs o Wedel and Taylor (2023) on bifurcated cervical ribs o Lei et al (2023) on theropod-bitten Morrison sauropods o Wedel and Atterholt (2023) on expanded neurocentral joints in sauropods o Aureliano et al (2023) on pneumaticity in Macrocollum o Taylor et al. (2023) on the Concrete Diplodocus of Vernal o Aureliano et al (2022) on vertebrae of early saurischians o Taylor and Wedel (2022) on vertebral orientation o Smith, Rodgers, Dolle, and Wedel (2022) on nerve growth in big animals o Vicki Wedel et al (2022) on dental cementum and age at death in humans o Atterholt and Wedel (2022) on paramedullary diverticula in birds o Woodruff et al. (2022) on respiratory infection in a sauropod o Taylor (2022) on incomplete necks o Aureliano et al. (2021) on saltasaur pneumaticity o Kay, Estes, and Wedel (2021) on variation in the peroneus tertius muscle (PT) o Amedeo et al (2021) on variation in human leg muscles o Wedel et al. (2021) on expanded neural canals in the Snowmass Haplocanthosaurus o Taylor and Wedel (2021) on pneumatic variation o Staples et al (2019) on long cutaneous branches of the obturator nerve in humans o Taylor (2018) on Xenoposeidon as a rebbachisaurid o Taylor and Wedel (2016) on the neck of Barosaurus o Hallett and Wedel (2016), The Sauropod Dinosaurs: Life in the Age of Giants o Ansolabehere et al. (2016) on moral dimensions of open o Hone, Farke, and Wedel (2016) on dinosaur ontogenetic stages o Taylor (2016) on evaluating research o Wedel et al. on apatosaur neck combat o Upchurch, Mannion and Taylor (2015) on Haestasaurus becklesii o Kraatz, Sherratt, Bumacod, and Wedel (2015) on rabbit skulls o Taylor (2014) on quantifying neck cartilage o Foster and Wedel (2014) on the Snowmass Haplocanthosaurus o Farke, Cifelli, Maxwell, and Wedel (2014) on Aquilops o Penera et al (2014) on the perforating branch of the peroneal artery o Taylor (2014 for 2004) on dinosaur diversity o Wedel and Taylor (2013b) on caudal pneumaticity o Taylor and Wedel (2013b) on neck cartilage o Wedel and Taylor (2013a) on sauropod neural spine bifurcation o Taylor and Wedel (2013a) on sauropod neck anatomy o Wedel (2012) on long nerves of sauropods o Yates, Wedel, and Bonnan (2012) on prosauropod pneumaticity o Taylor, Hone, Wedel and Naish (2011) on sexual selection of sauropod necks o Taylor, Wedel and Cifelli (2011) on Brontomerus o Taylor (2010) on the history of sauropod research o Taylor (2009) on the inevitability of electronic publishing of nomenclatural acts o Taylor (2009) on Brachiosaurus and Giraffatitan o Taylor, Wedel and Naish (2009) on neck posture o Upchurch, Martin, and Taylor (2009) on Cetiosaurus nomenclature o Wedel (2009) on air sacs o Taylor and Naish (2007) on Xenoposeidon * Categories Apatosaurus Art brachiosaurids Brachiosaurus caudal cervical collections diplodocids Diplodocus dorsal Giraffatitan goofy mounts museums navel blogging necks open access papers by SV-POW! 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