Apatosaurus
Apatosaurus ajax
Pronounced:
ah - Pat - o - Saw - rus
Diet:
Herbivore (Plant-Eater)
Name
Means:
"deceptive lizard"
Length:
85 feet (26 m)
Height:
20 feet (3 m)
Weight:
30 tons (27,000 kilos)
Time:
Late Jurassic - 152 mya
Fossil remains for this Dinosaur have
been found in Western North America
Apatosaurus is one of the most famous of the giant
Jurassic plant-eaters. It was a huge, long-necked
dinosaur, longer than two school buses and weighing
as much as 7 elephants! If you look at older
dinosaur books, you might not find Apatasaurus, but
you will see
Brontosaurus This was the name that was
used for this dinosaur when the wrong head was
mistakenly put on its body! For years an Apatasaurus
body stood with the head of
Camarasaurus on the end of its neck. This
was named
Brontosaurus and was one of the most
popular dinosaurs for many years.
Apatosaurus is a fairly
typical member of the
Diplodocid family - long
neck, pillar like legs, long
tapering tail and enormous
size. It had, like the other
family members, peg-like
teeth in a head that seemed
very small for such a large
creature. Compared to
Diplodocus, Apatosaurus has
a shorter, thicker neck and
a larger, heavier body.
There is much speculation
about how much these
creatures needed to eat and
how such a small head could
ingest enough food to fuel
such a large body. Some
scientists have stated that
these huge, small-headed
creatures would have needed
to eat every waking moment
in order to provide enough
food to keep such a large
body alive. Apatosaurus
seemed to have every
adaptation needed for
continuous eating, including
having nostrils on the top
of its head, so breathing
would not interfere with
eating.
In order to facilitate
the processing of food,
which it could not chew with
its teeth, Apatosaurus
probably swallowed stones
that it kept in a gizzard
similar to that found in a
chicken. The tough plant
fibers would spend time in
the gizzard stewing and
being ground up by the
stones. |
