Barosaurus
Barosaurus lentus
Pronounced:
Bare - o - Sore - us
Diet:
Herbivore (Plant-Eater)
Name Means:
"double beam"
Length:
66 feet (20 m)
Height:
20 feet (6 m)
Weight:
10 tons (9,000 kilos)
Time:
Late Jurassic - 155 MYA
Fossil remains for this Dinosaur have been found in
Western United States, Africa
Barosaurus was a very
long member of the same
family of dinosaurs that
includes Diplodocus. It
was a large,
plant-eating,
long-necked (sauropod)
dinosaur. It was one of
the last of the
longnecks that lived in
North America during the
late Jurassic and
possibly into the early
Cretaceous. They then
disappeared in North
America until the late
part of the Cretaceous
when these giant
sauropods migrated up
from South America.
Known primarily from one partial
skeleton described in 1890
(re-described in 1919), and possibly
a second species from Africa,
Barosaurus is very similar to
Diplodocus except for unusually long
cervical (neck) vertebrae. The
specimen was originally named
Gigantosaurus based on its size. Its
spectacularly long neck is showcased
in a somewhat controversial pose in
the rotunda of the American Museum
of Natural History. The dinosaur is
shown rearing up on its hind legs in
a defensive posture with its head
more than 30 feet in the air. Some
paleontologists have stated that it
would have been impossible for this
dinosaur to stand like that. |
