Barosaurus Characteristics

Barosaurus was enormous and measured over 86 feet (26 metres) in length and weighing over 22 tons. Barosaurus was differently proportioned than its close relative Diplodocus, with a longer neck and shorter tail, but was about the same length overall. Barosaurus was longer than the Apatosaurus, however, its skeleton was less robust. Also, Diplodocus and Apatosaurus both had 15 cervical (neck) and 10 dorsal (trunk) vertebrae, while Barosaurus had only 9 dorsals. Barosaurus feet have never been discovered, but like other sauropods, it would have been digitigrade, with all 4 feet each bearing 5 small toes. A large claw adorned the inside digit on the forefoot while smaller claws tipped the inside 3 digits of the hindfoot. Barosaurus had proportionately longer forelimbs than other diplodocids, although they were still shorter than most other groups of sauropods. Although its neck bones were hollow and light, Barosaurs was a slow moving dinosaur that had a small head and a small brain.

Barosaurus would have used its enormous size fend off predators. A female would have reared up to a predator to protect her young.

The first Barosaurus remains were discovered in the Morrison Formation of South Dakota by Othniel Charles Marsh and John Bell Hatcher of Yale University in 1889. Only 6 tail vertebrae were recovered at that time. The rest of the type specimen was left in the ground under the protection of the landowners until it was collected nine years later, in 1898, by Marsh's assistant, George Wieland. Four neck vertebrae, each 3 feet long, were collected in 1912 near a specimen of Diplodocus. The most complete specimen of Barosaurus was excavated from the Carnegie Quarry in 1923 by Douglass. More recently, more vertebrae and a pelvis were recovered in South Dakota. Barosaurus fossils are found in late Kimmeridgian sediments, around 150 million years old.

Barosaurus was named by paleontologist Othniel C. Marsh in 1890.