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Ammosaurus

Ammosaurus - Meaning: Sand lizard

Ammosaurus (ah-moh-SORE-us) was a large quadrupedal plateosaurid prosauropod dinosaur from the early Jurassic period and lived around 190 million years ago in the swamps of the United States and Canada. This dinosaurs name is derived from Greek words 'ammos' meaning 'sandy ground' and 'sauros' meaning 'lizard' referring to the sandstone in which it was found and its reptilian nature.

Ammosaurus

Ammosaurus Characteristics

Ammosaurus had a long neck and a small head. Ammosaurus had a bulky body, small feet, big hands with thumb claws and a long tail. It was about 14 feet (4 metres) long, weighing roughly 290 kilograms. It had claws on its hands which enable it to strip bark from trees.


The Ammosaurus was small compared to some other members of its suborder, which included the largest animals ever to walk the Earth.


The Ammosaurus was a versatile dinosaur who was able to move both bipedally and quadrupedally. The Ammosaurus was a herbivore and fed on many plants to survive. To defend itself during a conflict with another dinosaur, Ammosaurus would raise up on its hind legs and slash away with it front clawed limbs.


Four incomplete skeletons (juvenile and adult) have been found in the Portland Formation, Connecticut, Navajo Sandstone of Arizona USA, and perhaps Nova Scotia, Canada.


Ammosaurus was named by paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh in 1891.

AMMOSAURUS CLASSIFICATION:
Kingdom:
Animalia (animals)
Phylum:
Chordata (having a hollow nerve chord ending in a brain)
Class:
Sauropsida
Superorder:
Dinosauria
Order:
Saurischia - lizard-hipped dinosaurs
Suborder:
Sauropodomorpha
Family:
Anchisauridae
Genus:
Ammosaurus
Species:
A. major (Marsh, 1891)

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