The Mesozoic Park: ApatosaurusCommon Name: Apatosaurus, often incorrectly referred to as Brontosauru

The Mesozoic Park: ApatosaurusCommon Name: Apatosaurus, often incorrectly referred to as Brontosaurus Size: about 23 m long, weighed about 16-18 metric tons (16,000-18,000 kg)Age: Late Jurassic Geographic range: Western U.S. and CanadaLiked: Salad, neck massages Disliked: Getting called the wrong name, tiny airplane bathrooms Taxonomy: Animalia > Chordata > Dinosaura > Sauropodomorpha > Diplodocidae > Apatosaurinae > ApatosaurusApatosaurus is a sauropod (a group of long-necked, “lizard-hipped”, vegetarian dinos) that was first found in the fossil-rich Morrison Formation that extends throughout the western United States.Perhaps you haven’t heard of Apatosaurus before, but we bet you HAVE heard of brontosaurus, right? Well…they happen to be the same animal, and Apatosaurus is the politically correct term we are supposed to be using.Why the name confusion? It all relates back to the Bone Wars (http://on.fb.me/1bIkfvK) and the competition to discover more dinosaur species. Othniel Charles Marsh discovered and named an Apatosaurus skeleton in 1877. A few years later, he unearthed another skeleton that was similar to Apatosaurus but much larger, which hastily led to him to describe it as a new species—brontosaurus. As it turns out, the skeletons were the same species and the first one found was a juvenile. As naming conventions go, the first named species is the term that should be officially used, but for whatever reason, the name “brontosaurus” proliferated pop culture and Apatosaurus didn’t. Some of the first cartoon drawings of dinosaurs were labeled “brontosaurus”, the “brontosaurus” skeleton was one of the first to go up in a museum, the postal service released a “brontosaurus” stamp, and the Flintstones even had a pet brontosaurus and ate “bronto” burgers. So yes, the scientifically correct Apatosaurus got overlooked. There has actually been some recent talk about restoring the brontosaurus as a new species (http://bit.ly/1y0MOPu), but for now we’ll stick to Apatosaurus.Back to the correctly named dinosaur. There’s a good chance it was one of the largest terrestrial animals… ever. Apatosaurus also had a ridiculously long neck (up to 12 m long) that was buoyed up by air sacs attached to its vertebrae. There’s still a lot of uncertainty about how the animal held its neck—up high to eat leaves from the tallest tress? Or down low, hugging the ground? Most scientists believe its neck was held parallel to the ground, but are unsure how much it could lift or lower it. Apatosaurus also had an impressively long tail, which some research suggests it could crack like a whip and may have used as a defense mechanism. Compared to other sauropods, Apatosaurus had stockier legs.For many years, paleontologists incorrectly believed the Apatosaurus (and other sauropods) lived in water, which would support their gigantic weight and explain why their nostrils are found suspiciously on top of their heads. However, since the depositional environment Apatosaurus is found in does not indicate a wet setting and they haven’t been found with any other marine animals, we are now more certain they were indeed land-dwellers. Their size is still something to wonder about though—how and why did they get so big? How much did they have to eat to sustain themselves? In any case, the Apatosaurus is quite a marvel (one that somehow did NOT make it into the Jurassic Park movies so far). Just remember to call it by the right name.-CMPhoto credit: James St. John http://bit.ly/1A1a9BPFor more information:http://bit.ly/1EE4X3lThis article is a part of our “Mesozoic Park” series that is leading up to the release of Jurassic World. For more information, please see our introductory post at: http://on.fb.me/1ELwHW5 or if you already know about the series but missed a few articles you can find links to the first 10 posts at “Update #1,” here: http://on.fb.me/1ED1tOH -- source link

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