Apatosaurus Characteristics

Apatosaurus could grow to over 80 feet long, 10 - 15 feet tall at the hips and weigh approximately 35 tons. Apatosaurus is known for its very long neck which was useful for eating foilage off trees and shrubs. The head of a Apatosaurus was very small with one of the smallest brains of any dinosaur. Their eyes and nostrils were located on the top of their head. With such a small head and a correspondingly small mouth, Apatosaurus must have spent most of the time eating to get enough nourishment from plants to sustain itself. Apatosaurus swallowed stones to help grind up its tough plant food. It did not chew its food.

The cervical vertebrae of the Apatosaurus was less elongated and more heavily constructed than those of Diplodocus and the bones of the leg were much stockier, despite being longer, implying a more robust animal. The tail was held above the ground during normal locomotion. Like most sauropods, Apatosaurus had only a single large claw on each forelimb, with the first three toes on the hind limb possessing claws.

Fossils of Apatosaurus have been found in Nine Mile Quarry and Bone Cabin Quarry in Wyoming and at sites in Colorado, Oklahoma and Utah.

The composite term Apatosaurus comes from the Greek names 'apate' meaning 'deception' and 'sauros' meaning 'lizard' thus, 'deceptive lizard'. Othniel Charles Marsh gave it this name because he regarded the chevron bones as similar to those of some mosasaurs, members of a group of prehistoric marine lizards. Apatosaurus was named in 1877.