Where did Apatosaurus live?
Apatosaurus lived about 152 to 151 million years ago (mya), during the late Kimmeridgian to early Tithonian age, and are now known from fossils in the Morrison Formation of modern-day Colorado, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Wyoming, and Utah in the United States.
How old is Apatosaurus ajax?
Those of Apatosaurus ajax are known exclusively from the upper Brushy Basin Member, about 152–151 mya. A. louisae fossils are rare, known only from one site in the upper Brushy Basin Member; they date to the late Kimmeridgian stage, about 151 mya.
When was Apatosaurus parvus first described?
Apatosaurus parvus, first described from a juvenile specimen as Elosaurus in 1902 by Peterson and Gilmore, was reassigned to Apatosaurus in 1994, and then to Brontosaurus in 2015. Many other, more mature specimens were assigned to it following the 2015 study.
What did Apatosaurus look like?
Apatosaurus, like Diplodocus, would have held its neck angled upward with the head pointing downward in a resting posture. Kent Stevens and Michael Parrish (1999 and 2005) state Apatosaurus had a great feeding range; its neck could bend into a U-shape laterally.
Did the Apatosaurus live in the Jurassic Period?
Apatosaurus, (genus Apatosaurus), subsumes Brontosaurus, genus of at least two species of giant herbivorous sauropod dinosaurs that lived between about 156 million and 151 million years ago, during the late Jurassic Period. Its fossil remains are found in North America and Europe.
Did Apatosaurus live in the Cretaceous period?
Apatosaurus inhabited the Earth from the Upper Jurassic to the Lower Cretaceous. These animals were characterized by having a long neck, a small head, and an extremely long tail with a double bone structure.
Did the Brontosaurus live in the Cretaceous period?
brontosaurus, (genus Brontosaurus), genus of large herbivorous sauropod dinosaurs living during the Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous epochs (163.5 million to 100.5 million years ago).
What dinosaur has 5000 teeth?
NigersaurusNigersaurus Temporal range: Aptian – AlbianPhylum:ChordataClade:DinosauriaClade:SaurischiaClade:†Sauropodomorpha11 more rows
What was the longest dinosaur?
ArgentinosaurusDinosaur / BiggestArgentinosaurus is a genus of giant sauropod dinosaur that lived during the Late Cretaceous period in what is now Argentina. Wikipedia
When did the Apatosaurus go extinct?
Apatosaurus lived during the late Jurassic Period, about 157-146 million years ago. There was a minor mass extinction toward the end of the Jurassic period. During this extinction, most of the stegosaurid and enormous sauropod dinosaurs died out, as did many genera of ammonoids, marine reptiles, and bivalves.
What dinosaurs lived at the same time as the T. rex?
Dinosaurs typically found in the same formations (Hell Creek being the best studied so far) as Tyrannosaurs include:Edmontosaurus annectens.Triceratops horridus and prorosus.Torosaurus.Pachycephalosaurus.Denversaurus.Ornithomimus(?)Anzu.Acheroraptor.More items...•
Are Brontosaurus and Apatosaurus the same?
The scientists ultimately showed that Brontosaurus was distinct from Apatosaurus, one of the main differences being that Apatosaurus was more massive and robust with a thicker and lower-set neck than Brontosaurus.
Did flying dinosaurs exist?
Pterosaurs (/ˈtɛrəsɔːr, ˈtɛroʊ-/; from Greek pteron and sauros, meaning "wing lizard") is an extinct clade of flying reptiles in the order, Pterosauria. They existed during most of the Mesozoic: from the Late Triassic to the end of the Cretaceous (228 to 66 million years ago).
What is the fattest dinosaur?
ArgentinosaurusThe heaviest dinosaur was Argentinosaurus at 77 tonnes. It was the equivalent to 17 African Elephants.
What dinosaur has 15 horns?
Kosmoceratops richardsoniOne, Kosmoceratops richardsoni, had 15 horns on its head, while the other, Utahceratops gettyi, had five.
Which dinosaur is still alive?
In an evolutionary sense, birds are a living group of dinosaurs because they descended from the common ancestor of all dinosaurs.
What animals lived in the Cretaceous Period?
Dinosaurs were the dominant group of land animals, especially “duck-billed” dinosaurs (hadrosaurs), such as Shantungosaurus, and horned forms, such as Triceratops. Giant marine reptiles such as ichthyosaurs, mosasaurs, and plesiosaurs were common in the seas, and flying reptiles (pterosaurs) dominated the sky.
What lived in the Cretaceous Period?
Tyrannosa...MosasaurusVelociraptorTarbosaurusDromaeos...Luanchua...Cretaceous/Organisms
Where did Apatosaurus live?
They most likely lived near river banks where they could find both water and trees. They could not live in the forests, because they were simply too big to walk around in a forest! Their fossils have been found in Colorado, Oklahoma, Utah, and Wyoming, in the USA, North America.
What species went extinct in the Cretaceous Period?
In addition to the non-avian dinosaurs, vertebrates that were lost at the end of the Cretaceous include the flying pterosaurs, and the mosasaurs, plesiosaurs and ichthyosaurs of the oceans.
Where did the Apatosaurus live?
Apatosaurus lived about 152 to 151 million years ago (mya), during the late Kimmeridgian to early Tithonian age, and are now known from fossils in the Morrison Formation of modern -day Colorado, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Wyoming, and Utah in the United States.
Where are Apatosaurus ajax fossils found?
Those of Apatosaurus ajax are known exclusively from the upper Brushy Basin Member, about 152–151 mya. A. louisae fossils are rare, known only from one site in the upper Brushy Basin Member; they date to the late Kimmeridgian stage, about 151 mya.
What is the name of the new species of Apatosaurus?
The skull was found a short distance from a skeleton (specimen CM 3018) identified as the new species Apatosaurus louisae, named after Louise Carnegie, wife of Andrew Carnegie, who funded field research to find complete dinosaur skeletons in the American West.
What is the snout of an Apatosaurus?
The jaws are lined with spatulate (chisel-like) teeth suited to an herbivorous diet. The snout of Apatosaurus and similar diplodocoids is squared, with only Nigersaurus having a squarer skull. The braincase of Apatosaurus is well preserved in specimen BYU 17096, which also preserved much of the skeleton.
How fast can a sauropod move?
Trackways of sauropods like Apatosaurus show that they may have had a range of around 25–40 km (16–25 mi) per day, and that they could potentially have reached a top speed of 20–30 km (12–19 mi) per hour. The slow locomotion of sauropods may be due to their minimal muscling, or to recoil after strides.
How many claws does an apatosaurus have?
The tail was held above the ground during normal locomotion. Apatosaurus had a single claw on each forelimb and three on each hindlimb. The Apatosaurus skull, long thought to be similar to Camarasaurus, is much more similar to that of Diplodocus. Apatosaurus was a generalized browser that likely held its head elevated.
What is the name of the first known dinosaur?
Atlantosaurus montanus. Marsh, 1877. Apatosaurus ( / əˌpætəˈsɔːrəs /; meaning "deceptive lizard") is a genus of herbivorous sauropod dinosaur that lived in North America during the Late Jurassic period. Othniel Charles Marsh described and named the first-known species, A. ajax, in 1877, and a second species, A.
Who first described the apatosaurus?
Apatosaurus was first described by American paleontologist O.C. Marsh in 1877. Two years later he described another sauropod, Brontosaurus. American paleontologist Elmer Riggs in 1903 ascribed the differences between the two genera to growth and deemed Apatosaurus to be a young Brontosaurus. Since Apatosaurus had been described first, that became the species name. The change took some time to become accepted in museums—and much longer in popular culture—but by the 1970s Apatosaurus had supplanted Brontosaurus. However, in 2015 the classification question was reopened when an analysis of 81 sauropod skeletons claimed that the specimens that had been labeled Brontosaurus were a genus distinct from Apatosaurus.
How big is the Apatosaurus?
Apatosaurus, which is considered to be one of the largest land animalsof all time, weighed as much as 41 tonnes (roughly 45 tons) and measured up to 23 metres (about 75 feet) long, including its long neck and tail. It had four massive and pillarlike legs, and its tail was extremely long and whiplike.
What is the name of the dinosaur that was a Brontosaurus?
…subsumed by the earlier-described genus Apa tosaurus. Despite the change in classification, the public still embraced the dinosaur as Brontosaurus, owing to the widespread use of its likeness during much of the 20th century in advertising, motion pictures, and television, as well as the presence of Brontosaurus reconstructions in museums throughout…
How long was the Apatosaurushead disputed?
The size, shape, and features of the Apatosaurushead were disputed for more than a century after its remains were first uncovered. Certainty was clouded in part by incomplete fossil finds and by a suspected mix-up of the first fossils during shipment from an excavation site.
What is the name of the dinosaur that was used in advertising?
Despite the change in classification, the public still embraced the dinosaur as Brontosaurus, owing to the widespread use of its likeness during much of the 20th century in advertising, motion pictures, and television, as well as the presence of Brontosaurusreconstructions in museums throughout…. saurischian.
Overview
Apatosaurus is a genus of herbivorous sauropod dinosaur that lived in North America during the Late Jurassic period. Othniel Charles Marsh described and named the first-known species, A. ajax, in 1877, and a second species, A. louisae, was discovered and named by William H. Holland in 1916. Apatosaurus lived about 152 to 151 million years ago (mya), during the late Kimmeridgian to early Tithonian age, and are now known from fossils in the Morrison Formation of modern-day Colorado,
Description
Apatosaurus was a large, long-necked, quadrupedal animal with a long, whip-like tail. Its forelimbs were slightly shorter than its hindlimbs. Most size estimates are based on specimen CM 3018, the type specimen of A. louisae, reaching 21–23 m (69–75 ft) in length and 16.4–22.4 t (16.1–22.0 long tons; 18.1–24.7 short tons) in body mass. A 2015 study that estimated the mass of volumetric models of Dreadnoughtus, Apatosaurus, and Giraffatitan estimates CM 3018 at 21.8–…
Discovery and species
The first Apatosaurus fossils were discovered by Arthur Lakes, a local miner, and his friend Henry C. Beckwith in the spring of 1877 in Morrison, a town in the eastern foothills of the Rocky Mountains in Gunnison County, Colorado. Arthur Lakes wrote to Othniel Charles Marsh, Professor of Paleontology at Yale University, and Edward Drinker Cope, paleontologist based in Philadelphia, about the discovery until eventually collecting several fossils and sending them to both paleonto…
Classification
Apatosaurus is a member of the family Diplodocidae, a clade of gigantic sauropod dinosaurs. The family includes some of the longest creatures ever to walk the earth, including Diplodocus, Supersaurus, and Barosaurus. Apatosaurus is sometimes classified in the subfamily Apatosaurinae, which may also include Suuwassea, Supersaurus, and Brontosaurus. Othniel Charles Marsh described Apatosaurus as allied to Atlantosaurus within the now-defunct group At…
Paleobiology
It was believed throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries that sauropods like Apatosaurus were too massive to support their own weight on dry land. It was theorized that they lived partly submerged in water, perhaps in swamps. More recent findings do not support this; sauropods are now thought to have been fully terrestrial animals. A study of diplodocid snouts showed that the square snout, large proportion of pits, and fine, subparallel scratches of the teeth of Apatosauru…
Paleoecology
The Morrison Formation is a sequence of shallow marine and alluvial sediments which, according to radiometric dating, dates from between 156.3 mya at its base, and 146.8 mya at the top, placing it in the late Oxfordian, Kimmeridgian, and early Tithonian stages of the Late Jurassic period. This formation is interpreted as originating in a locally semiarid environment with distinct wet and dry seasons. The Morrison Basin, where dinosaurs lived, stretched from New Mexico to Alberta and …
External links
• Hartman, S. (2013). "Sauropods and kin". Scott Hartman's Skeletal Drawings.
• Batuman, Elif. Brontosaurus Rising (April 2015), The New Yorker
• Krystek, Lee. "Whatever Happened to the Brontosaurus?" UnMuseum (Museum of Unnatural Mystery), 2002.