The Brontosaurus/Apatosaurus : Five Interesting Facts About This Dinosaur

The Brontosaurus name means "thunder lizard", but this name is no longer being used to describe this animal. The name the dinosaur is known by now is Apatosaurus which means "deceptive lizard". Although most of the sauropod family traveled in large herds there are indications that the Apatosaurus might have been a solitary animal.

Origin of the Apatosaurus/Brontosaurus name

The original "Brontosaurus" Othneil C. Marsh came up with it's name in 1879. He had actually named another series of bones two years earlier the Apatosaurus, then it came to pass that they found out the skeletons were of the same type of dinosaur so the earlier name of "Apatosaurus" that was named in 1877 became this dinosaur's official name. Unfortunately, for some reason the Apatosaurus name is not as familiar as the Brontosaurus name and there has been confusion ever since they tried to combine the two names and eliminate the "Brontosaurus" one.

The Diet of an Apatosaurus

This dinosaur was a plant eater and it had a massive stomach for digesting large amount of plant material. It was a herbivore and ate mostly conifers. It's teeth were designed to strip and gather foliage. But, some paleontologists suggest that this dinosaur might have had large lips that would help with gathering other plant material such as horsetails, mosses, and ferns and could have resembled a gigantic lawnmower when it did so.

The Size and Body Type of an Apatosaurus

This dinosaur was one of the largest animals to have ever existed and measured anywhere from 70 to 90 feet long and about 15 feet at the hips, and weighed anywhere in the neighborhood of 33 to 38 tons. It's tail alone could measure up to 50 feet in length. Much like the other sauropods of the time it had a short head and skinny neck that would have probably allowed it to snake through trees to get to foliage on the inside of a forest, and it could not hold it's neck higher than 17 feet off the ground.

Life Cycle and Nesting Habits

Like most of the sauropods the Apatosaurus developed into maturity at about ten years old and continued to grow steadily from there. The female of the species probably laid eggs like other sauropods. Apatosaurus eggs have been found in a linear pattern and not in a circular one indicating that the eggs were laid while walking and they could reach 1 foot in length. Some archeologists/paleontologists estimate it's life span to be about 100 years.

The Apatosaurus Enemies & it's Extinction

Like many of the large sauropods in this time frame the Diplodocus died out at the end of the Jurassic period. The Apatosaurus might have been prey to the Allosaurus, but because this predator only grew to about 15 feet tall, the fact that the Apatosaurus could raise it's neck/head to 17 feet helped keep the Apatosaurus neck and head safe because it could have been held out of the Allosaurus' reach. And it's sheer size probably kept it safe from most predators of this time period which would mean that most of the Apatosaurus usually died from old age or other natural causes.

Recommended Reading:
The Diplodocus : Five Interesting Facts about This Dinosaur