Camarasaurus Characteristics

Camarasaurus grew to between 50 feet (15 metres) and 75 feet (23 metres) in length and around 15 feet (4.6 metres) tall at the hips. Their maximum weight could reach 20 tons. Camarasaurus had a long neck and long tail and a rather square-blunt snout. The neck and counter-balancing tail were shorter than usual for a sauropod of this size. Camarasaurus had many sharp teeth which measured 19 centimetres long and were shaped like spoons. Their teeth were strong, which indicates that Camarasaurus ate coarser plant material such as conifers and fern leaves, than the more slender-toothed Diplodocids. This giant herbivore must have eaten an incredible amount of plant matter to sustain itself. They may have swallowed gastroliths (gizzard stones) to aid with digestion. The skull of Camarasaurus was short, compared to other sauropods.

Camarasaurus walked on 4 thick legs. Each of their front limbs had 5 toes and the inner toe had a large sharp claw. As with most sauropods, their hind legs were longer than their front legs. Camarasaurus had hollow vertebrae which served as a purpose to decrease its weight as also seen in other sauropods. Its meaning 'Chambered Lizard' was derived from the dinosaurs hollow features.

It used to be thought that the sauropods like Camarasaurus, Brachiosaurus, Apatosaurus and Stegosaurus had a second brain. Paleontologists now think that what they thought was a second brain was just an enlargement in the spinal cord in the hip area. This enlargement was larger than the dinosaurs tiny brain.

It was not until 1925 that a complete skeleton of Camarasaurus was recovered, by Charles W. Gilmore. However, it was the skeleton from a young Camarasaurus, which is why so many illustrations of the dinosaur from the time show it to be much smaller than it is now known to be. There is a fossil record of two adults and a 40 feet (12.2 metre) long juvenile that died together in the Late Jurassic Period, approximately 150 million years ago. This may suggest that Camarasaurus traveled in family groups or herds. Camarasaurus eggs have also been discovered laid in trails rather than in nests which also suggests that they laid eggs as they were walking and like other sauropods, Camarasaurus did not tend to their young. Sauropods life spans may have been up to 100 years.

Camarasaurus was named in 1877 by Edward Drinker Cope.