Sauropod Vertebra Picture of the Week
svpow.com · Group blog · on HN since 2012
Sauropod Vertebra Picture of the Week is a blog by paleontologists, led by Mike Taylor, on sauropod anatomy and academic publishing.
What HN saysHN links it for its criticism of Elsevier and academic publishing, and for posts on sauropod anatomy and the value of blog comment communities.
37HN people shared it
14linked it in comments
38stories submitted
1.6Kstory points
4 months agolast shared
2012people per year2026
Most-shared posts
- 1Every attempt to manage academia makes it worse7 people · 559 points · first shared 2017 · 303 comments on HN
- 2We're not going to run out of new anatomy anytime soon2 people · 209 points · first shared 2024 · 100 comments on HN
- 3If you believe in "Artificial Intelligence", take five minutes to ask it2 people · 134 points · first shared 2025 · 224 comments on HN
- 4Elsevier’s David Tempest explains subscription-contract confidentiality clauses2 people · 68 points · first shared 2013 · 11 comments on HN
- 5Elsevier is taking down papers from Academia.edu2 people · 35 points · first shared 2013 · 5 comments on HN
- 6Sauropod Vertebra Picture of the Week2 people · 23 points · first shared 2021 · 3 comments on HN
- 7Elsevier steps up its War On Access1 people · 172 points · first shared 2013 · 82 comments on HN
- 8If I could dissect a sauropod1 people · 138 points · first shared 2024 · 18 comments on HN
- 9If you'd built a "tool" that stupid, why would you advertise the fact?1 people · 112 points · first shared 2025 · 37 comments on HN
- 10To what extent is science a strong-link problem?1 people · 39 points · first shared 2024 · 10 comments on HN
- 11Sci-Hub is a scholarly litmus test1 people · 27 points · first shared 2016 · 1 comments on HN
- 12Tutorial 48: my museum collections kit1 people · 15 points · first shared 2025 · discussion on HN
- 13Elesevier says "there is no consent needed from authors"1 people · 5 points · first shared 2025 · discussion on HN
- 14The "Bizarre Headgear" Exhibit at the Sam Noble Museum Is Incredible1 people · 3 points · first shared 2026 · discussion on HN
- 15Absence of evidence is evidence of absence; it just isn't proof1 people · 3 points · first shared 2025 · 1 comments on HN
What HN people wrote when they linked it
davorak · 2024-09-16
It did not work for me either, in chrome.
The follow link work though: https://svpow.com/2024/09/07/
MikeTaylor · 2021-02-05
The classic answer is that commenters on a blog become a community, and that much of the value of a blog-post is in the discussion. No doubt that if often not true; but on both of my own main blogs it absolutely is. I'll point you at one of them: Sauropod Vertebra Picture of the Week is a palaeontology blog with a knowledgeable and thoughtful readership that often thinks of things that I and my co-author did not. See for example https://svpow.com/2021/02/01/what-a-cervical-vertebra-of-an-800m-sauro…
dmitriz · 2018-12-23
Quote from
https://svpow.com/2016/05/22/elseviers-increasing-control-over-scholar…
"it’s simply unrealistic to imagine that Elsevier, in controlling Mendeley and SSRN, will do anything other than what is best for Elsevier."
tompagenet2 · 2025-02-15
I asked Perplexity (Pro, if it matters). Seems pretty solid to me. I'm not sure this article is making any point other than "the knowledge back of static artificial intelligence systems is finite and they don't express uncertainty well". Amusingly it links to this blog post, but you'll see the sources it uses are largely not this post.
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The reassignment of Brachiosaurus brancai to its own genus occurred through a series of steps by different paleontologists:
## Initial Classification In 1914, Werner Janensch first described the African species as Brachiosaurus brancai, considering it part of the existing Brachiosaurus genus[4].
## Path to Reclassification Gregory S. Paul made the first step toward separation in 1988 by proposing a subgenus classification, Brachiosaurus (Giraffatitan) brancai, after noticing significant skeletal differences[4][10].
George Olshevsky then elevated Giraffatitan to full genus status in 1991, though this change was largely disregarded by the scientific community at the time[4][10].
## Formal Establishment The definitive separation came in 2009 when Michael P. Taylor published a detailed study demonstrating 26 distinct osteological differences between the African and American species. This comprehensive analysis firmly established Giraffatitan as a separate genus, creating the combination Giraffatitan brancai[3][4]. From 2012 onward, most researchers have accepted this classification[10].
Citations: [1] https://svpow.com [2]…
keeda · 2026-06-26
Huh, my first thought was, the Predator taking on dinosaurs would be a pretty cool movie: https://svpow.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/bizarre-headgear-7-cerato…
D-Machine · 2025-12-19
You shouldn't be 100% convinced: obviously there are some non-trivial typesetting costs.
But general typesetting is very obviously a largely solved problem in 2025, regardless of the submission format, so since academic journals have weirdly specific input format requirements that are not demanded in other similar domains, it is clear they are doing dated / junk / minimal typesetting / formatting.
Also see what the costs are anywhere else, typesetting is a triviality:
https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/52009
https://www.lode.de/blog/the-cost-effective-revolution-automated-latex…
https://svpow.com/2015/06/11/how-much-does-typesetting-cost/
https://old.reddit.com/r/publishing/comments/1cdx1jq/author_paying_for…
Sniffnoy · 2025-10-17
An interesting post I read recently about why we haven't: https://svpow.com/2024/09/07/were-not-going-to-run-out-of-new-anatomy-…
Of course, that's specifically about human anatomy. In this case we're talking about a feature that I'd bet is present in other animals too, so the factors discussed here don't all apply. In this case though there seems to be a straightforward answer -- the structures involved are very small! The post I linked is largely talking about larger structures we failed to find...
setr · 2021-05-10
The article notes (and the linked article particularly does so[0]) that it was likely a "glycogen body", similar to what is found in birds.
However, they have no idea what the hell it does in birds, so even less so what it'd do in a dinosaur.
[0] https://svpow.com/2009/12/15/lies-damned-lies-and-clash-of-the-dinosau…
jvanderbot · 2020-06-06
Those "Long necks" probably didn't hold their neck that way, according to this highly informative article: https://svpow.com/2009/05/31/necks-lie/
Camillo · 2019-09-13
A few weeks ago I spent an evening reading posts on svpow.com, and I have become a sauropod neck truther. If you just look at how necks actually work in living animals, you can immediately see how arguments based on the "osteological neutral pose" are complete bunk. Here's a place to start: https://svpow.com/2014/11/03/necks-lie-the-complete-story/
erikbye · 2017-10-24
Supposedly the Journal of Co-ordination Chemistry costs $11,367 per year, 24 issues [1].
[1] https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/information-culture/why-are-journ…
https://svpow.com/2012/01/13/the-obscene-profits-of-commercial-scholar…
dredmorbius · 2017-03-30
I'm trying to access the source paper for this study, and am finding that despite NBER and SSRN, both generally open-access sites, as hosts, the PDF itself is paywalled on SSRN.
The backstory here is that SSRN, a site for open dissemination of largely pre-publication papers, was bought by Elsevier in 2013, to the loud dismay of the open-access community.
It seems that the predictions of what would transpire are being fully born out.
https://svpow.com/2016/07/18/elsevier-has-started-destroying-ssrn/
The Sci-Hub workaround is to chase the NBER PDF download link:
http://www.nber.org.sci-hub.cc/papers/w21788.pdf
altoz · 2016-07-06
Hypothesis: peer-reviewed articles aren't rigorous
Prediction: a flawed article will pass peer-review
Testing: https://svpow.com/2013/10/03/john-bohannons-peer-review-sting-against-…
Analysis: Peer review is not rigorous
masklinn · 2012-05-09
SV-POW has a number of posts on the subject of open access in general[0] and elsevier in particular[1].
[0] http://svpow.com/category/open-access/
[1] http://svpow.com/category/stinkin-mammals/stinkin-publishers/