"Riggs' assistant, H. William Menke, found the first known skeleton of the giant sauropod dinosaur ""Brachiosaurus altithorax"" from near Grand Junction, Colorado. At the end of the 1900 field season Riggs' found a specimen of ""Apatosaurus"" near Fruita, a few miles from the Brachiosaurus site. This specimen was excavated during the 1901 field season, and was put on display in 1908 at the Field Museum. From these specimens he named ""Brachiosaurus"" and Brachiosauridae, and presented evidence that ""Apatosaurus"" and ""Brontosaurus"" were the same genus of dinosaur. He also proposed that sauropods were terrestrial animals, based on their limb structure, but"
"Apatosaurus Apatosaurus (; meaning ""deceptive lizard"") is a genus of herbivorous sauropod dinosaur that lived in North America during the Late Jurassic period. Othniel Charles Marsh described and named the first-known species, A. ajax, in 1877, and a second species, A. louisae, was discovered and named by William H. Holland in 1916. ""Apatosaurus"" lived about 152 to 151 million years ago (mya), during the late Kimmeridgian to early Tithonian age, and are now known from fossils in the Morrison Formation of modern-day Colorado, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Wyoming, and Utah in the United States. ""Apatosaurus"" had an average length of ,"
"Brontosaurus Brontosaurus (; meaning ""thunder lizard"" from Greek , ""thunder"" and , ""lizard"") is a genus of gigantic quadruped sauropod dinosaurs. Although the type species, B. excelsus, had long been considered a species of the closely related ""Apatosaurus"", researchers proposed in 2015 that ""Brontosaurus"" is a genus separate from ""Apatosaurus"" and that it contains three species: B. excelsus, B. yahnahpin, and B. parvus. ""Brontosaurus"" had a long, thin neck and a small head adapted for a herbivorous lifestyle; a bulky, heavy torso; and a long, whip-like tail. The various species lived during the Late Jurassic epoch in the Morrison Formation"
"Camptosaurus Camptosaurus ( ) is a genus of plant-eating, beaked ornithischian dinosaurs of the Late Jurassic period of western North America. The name means 'flexible lizard' (Greek καμπτος/""kamptos"" meaning 'bent' and σαυρος/""sauros"" meaning 'lizard'). ""Camptosaurus"" is a relatively heavily built form, with robust hindlimbs and broad feet, still having four toes. Due to the separate status of ""Uteodon"" it has become problematic which material from the Morrison belongs to ""Camptosaurus"". The specimens with certainty belonging to ""Camptosaurus dispar"", from Quarry 13, have been recovered from very deep layers, probably dating to the Callovian-Oxfordian. The largest fragments from later strata indicate"
"for rearing on its hindlimbs. It has been used as an example of a dinosaur that was most likely ectothermic because of its large size and the corresponding need for sufficient forage, but more recent research suggests it was warm-blooded. Among the most iconic and initially thought to be one of the largest dinosaurs, ""Brachiosaurus"" has appeared in popular culture, notably in the 1993 film ""Jurassic Park"". Most estimates of ""Brachiosaurus altithorax"" size are based on the related African brachiosaurid ""Giraffatitan"" (formerly known as ""Brachiosaurus brancai""), which is known from much more complete material than ""Brachiosaurus"". The two species are"
"Giraffatitan Giraffatitan (name meaning ""titanic giraffe"") is a genus of sauropod dinosaur that lived during the late Jurassic Period (Kimmeridgian–Tithonian stages). It was originally named as an African species of ""Brachiosaurus"" (""B. brancai""), but this has since been changed. ""Giraffatitan"" was for many decades known as the largest dinosaur but recent discoveries of several larger dinosaurs prove otherwise: giant titanosaurians appear to have surpassed ""Giraffatitan"" in terms of sheer mass. Also the sauropod dinosaur ""Sauroposeidon"" is estimated to be taller and possibly heavier than ""Giraffatitan"". All size estimates for ""Giraffatitan"" are based on the specimen HMN SII a subadult individual"
"Agathaumas Agathaumas (; ""great wonder"") is a dubious genus of a large ceratopsid dinosaur that lived in Wyoming during the Late Cretaceous (late Maastrichtian stage, 66 million years ago). The name comes from the Greek – ""much"" – and – ""wonder"". It is estimated to have been long and weighed , and was seen as the largest land animal known at the time of its discovery. It was the first named ceratopsian, though relatively little is known about it. The original specimen consisted only of the animal's hip bones, hip vertebrae and ribs, and because these bones vary little between"
"Crichtonsaurus Crichtonsaurus is a dubious genus of herbivorous ankylosaurid ankylosaur dinosaur. It was named for Michael Crichton, the author of the famed dinosaur novel ""Jurassic Park"". It was an ankylosaurine, and it lived during the late Cretaceous Period of China. The first fossils of the genus were discovered in 1999 at Xiafuxiang, near Beipiao in Liaoning Province, China. It was named and described by Dong Zhiming of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2002. The type species is ""Crichtonsaurus bohlini"". The generic name is in honor of Michael Crichton, American author whose"
"Apatosaurus. Within Jurassic World are 20 species of dinosaurs - 14 herbivores and 6 carnivores. The northern part of the island, where the original Jurassic Park was centered, is a restricted area off limits to tourists. The containment unit where the ""Indominus Rex"" is held is located in this sector. During the course of the film, two of the characters, Zach and Gray, discover the ruins of the Jurassic Park Visitor Center, deeply overgrown with vegetation. The visitor center appears to have been untouched since the T. rex attack at the climax of the first film; the torn banner and"
"names; he grouped ""Apatosaurus"" within Opisthocoelia. Sauropoda is still used as the group name. In 2011, John Whitlock published a study that placed ""Apatosaurus"" a more basal diplodocid, sometimes less basal than ""Supersaurus"". Cladogram of the Diplodocidae after Tschopp, Mateus, and Benson (2015). It was believed throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries that sauropods like ""Apatosaurus"" were too massive to support their own weight on dry land. It was theorized that they lived partly submerged in water, perhaps in swamps. More recent findings do not support this; sauropods are now thought to have been fully terrestrial animals. A study"
"a ""u"" does not follow the ""q"" in ""Qantassaurus"". The specific name means ""intrepid"" in Latin, referring to the climatic challenges the small dinosaur had to face. Qantassaurus Qantassaurus ( ) is a genus of two-legged, plant-eating ornithischian dinosaur that lived in Australia about 115 million years ago, when the continent was still partly south of the Antarctic Circle. It was described by Patricia Vickers-Rich and her husband Tom Rich in 1999 after a find near Inverloch, and named after Qantas, the Australian airline. ""Qantassaurus"" was probably about 1.8 meters (6 feet) long, and about one meter (3 feet) high."
"that the name Sauropoda would be a junior synonym of earlier names, and grouped ""Apatosaurus"" within Opisthocoelia. Most authors still use Sauropoda as the group name. Originally named by its discoverer Othniel Charles Marsh in 1879, ""Brontosaurus"" had long been considered a junior synonym of ""Apatosaurus""; its type species, ""Brontosaurus excelsus"", was reclassified as ""A. excelsus"" in 1903. However, an extensive study published in 2015 by a joint British-Portuguese research team concluded that ""Brontosaurus"" was a valid genus of sauropod distinct from ""Apatosaurus"". Nevertheless, not all paleontologists agree with this division. The same study classified two additional species that had"
"Champsosaurus Champsosaurus is an extinct genus of diapsid reptiles belonging to the order Choristodera, that existed in the Late Cretaceous and Paleogene periods. It consists of seven species: ""C. albertensis, C. ambulator, C. gigas, C. laramiensis, C. lindoei, C. natator,"" and ""C. tenuis."" The name ""Champsosaurus"" is thought to come from χαμψαι [champsai] (said in an Ancient Greek source to be an Egyptian word for ""crocodiles""), and σαύρος [sauros] (Greek for ""lizard""). The largest species, ""C. gigas"", grew to 3-3.5 m (10–12 ft) in length. Its fossils have been found in North America (Alberta, Saskatchewan, Montana, New Mexico, Texas, Colorado,"
"for the large herbivorous dinosaurs known as the sauropods—""Camarasaurus"", ""Apatosaurus"", ""Diplodocus"", ""Brachiosaurus"", and many others—that roamed the land late in the period; their foraging grounds were either the prairies of ferns, palm-like cycads and bennettitales, or the higher coniferous growth, according to their adaptations. The smaller Ornithischian herbivore dinosaurs, like stegosaurs and small ornithopods were less predominant, but played important roles. They were preyed upon by large theropods, such as ""Ceratosaurus"", ""Megalosaurus"", ""Torvosaurus"" and ""Allosaurus"". All these belong to the 'lizard hipped' or saurischian branch of the dinosaurs. During the Late Jurassic, the first avialans, like ""Archaeopteryx"", evolved from small"
"small, light-footed predators. A few groups acquired herbivorous diets, such as the heavily armored aetosaurs, and several were bipedal, such as ""Poposaurus"" and ""Postosuchus"". The bizarre, ornithomimid-like shuvosaurids were both bipedal and herbivorous, with toothless beaks. Many of these Triassic pseudosuchian groups went extinct at or before the Triassic-Jurassic extinction event. However, one group, the crocodylomorphs, survived the major extinction. Crocodylomorphs themselves evolved a diverse array of lifestyles during the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, although only a single subset of crocodylomorphs survived to the present day. These sole remaining pseudocuchians are the crocodilians: crocodiles, alligators, caimans, and gharials. The name"
"out from one ancestor, a primitive anchisaurlike dinosaur. And a new name is required for this grand family of vegetarians. So I hereby christen them the ""Phytodinosauria"", the ""plant dinosaurs"". Both sauropodomorphs and ornithischians are characterized by their “blunt, spoon-crowned teeth suitable for cropping plants” and these would not be an instance of convergent evolution, both groups adapting to a herbivorous mode of living, but a sign they were descended from a plant-eating common ancestor. Bakker classified the Phytodinosauria as a superorder of mostly herbivorous dinosaurs within the Dinosauria. Even before 1986, authors had combined the sauropodomorphs and ornithischians. Freelance"
"dissertatione"". However, in 2015, the name was validly published and it was officially separated from the dubious type species ""C. bohlini"". Crichtonsaurus Crichtonsaurus is a dubious genus of herbivorous ankylosaurid ankylosaur dinosaur. It was named for Michael Crichton, the author of the famed dinosaur novel ""Jurassic Park"". It was an ankylosaurine, and it lived during the late Cretaceous Period of China. The first fossils of the genus were discovered in 1999 at Xiafuxiang, near Beipiao in Liaoning Province, China. It was named and described by Dong Zhiming of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of"
"governs the scientific names of animals), the name ""Apatosaurus"", having been published first, had priority as the official name; ""Brontosaurus"" was considered a junior synonym and was therefore discarded from formal use. Despite this, at least one paleontologist—Robert T. Bakker—argued in the 1990s that ""A. ajax"" and ""A. excelsus"" are in fact sufficiently distinct that the latter continues to merit a separate genus. In 2015, an extensive study of diplodocid relationships by Emanuel Tschopp, Octavio Mateus, and Roger Benson concluded that ""Brontosaurus"" was indeed a valid genus of sauropod distinct from ""Apatosaurus"". The scientists developed a statistical method to more"
"Fabrosaurus Fabrosaurus ( ; meaning ""Fabre's lizard"" in honor of Jean Fabre, a French geologist and a colleague of Ginsburg on the expedition that collected the fossil in Basutoland, Southern Africa ; Greek ""sauros"" ""lizard"")) was a genus of herbivorous dinosaur which lived during the Early Jurassic (Hettangian to Sinemurian stages 199 - 189 mya). ""Fabrosaurus"" was named by paleontologist Leonard Ginsburg in 1964 based on partial jawbone with three teeth. The type species, ""F. australis"", was named for the location of the fossils in the Elliot Formation, Lesotho, Southern Africa (""australis"" being Latin for ""southern""). Subsequent discoveries included two"
"Acteosaurus Acteosaurus is an extinct genus of aquatic lizard that lived in the upper Cretaceous period. Its species, ""A. tommasinii"" and ""A. crassicostatus"", were described in 1860 and 1993. Though ""A. crassicostatus"" is probably a junior synonym for ""Adriosaurus suessi"", ""A. tommasinii"" was found to be similar to coniasaurs, mosasauroids, and a sister taxon to modern snakes in 2010. The primary portion of ""Acteosaurus""' name comes from Actaeon (; Greek: ), a famous Theban hero who was hunted and killed by the goddess Artemis. The second part of the name is the Greek word ""sauros"" (""σαυρος""), which means ""lizard"" or"
"and may be due to individual variation. Foster argued that ""Amphicoelias"" is probably the senior synonym of ""Diplodocus"", and that if further research bears this out, the familiar name ""Diplodocus"" would need to be abandoned in favor of ""Amphicoelias"", as was the case with ""Brontosaurus"" and its senior synonym ""Apatosaurus"". In 2015, Woodruff and Foster reiterated this conclusion, stating that there is only one species of ""Amphicoelias"" and that it could be referred to ""Diplodocus"" as ""Diplodocus altus"". They considered the name ""Amphicoelias"" to be a ""nomen oblitum"". It has also been hypothesized that ""Amphicoelias"" should be considered an apatosaurine,"
"Abrictosaurus Abrictosaurus (; ""wakeful lizard"") is a genus of heterodontosaurid dinosaur from the Early Jurassic Period of what is now southern Africa. It was a small bipedal herbivore or omnivore, approximately 1.2 meters (4 feet) long, and weighing less than 45 kilograms (100 pounds). This dinosaur is known from the fossil remains of only two individuals, found in the Upper Elliot Formation of Qacha's Nek District in Lesotho and Cape Province in South Africa. The Upper Elliot is thought to date from the Hettangian and Sinemurian stages of the Early Jurassic Period, approximately 200 to 190 million years ago. This"
"once been considered ""Apatosaurus"" and ""Eobrontosaurus"" as ""Brontosaurus parvus"" and ""Brontosaurus yahnahpin"" respectively. Cladogram of the Diplodocidae after Tschopp, Mateus, and Benson (2015): The cladogram below is the result of an analysis by Tschopp, Mateus, and Benson (2015). The authors analyzed most diplodocid type specimens separately to deduce which specimen belonged to which species and genus. Historically, sauropods like ""Brontosaurus"" were believed to be too massive to support their own weight on dry land, so theoretically they must have lived partly submerged in water, perhaps in swamps. Recent findings do not support this, and sauropods are thought to have been"
"a humid tropical climate. The named dinosaur fauna of the region apart from ""Lurdusaurus"" consisted of ""Ouranosaurus"", the sauropod ""Nigersaurus"", the spinosaurid ""Suchomimus,"" the carcharodontosaurid ""Eocarcharia"" and the abelisaurid ""Kryptops"". The waters moreover were inhabited by the semionotid fish ""Pliodetes"" as well as the giant crocodile relative, ""Sarcosuchus"". Lurdusaurus Lurdusaurus ('heavy lizard') is a genus of large ornithopod dinosaur that lived in the Aptian stage of the Early Cretaceous, sometime between 121 and 112 million years ago. The generic name is derived from the Latin ""lurdus"", ""heavy"" while the specific name of the type species, ""arenatus"" means ""sandy"", being a"
"Lizard bones from the Late Miocene of Nebraska were attributed to a new species of ""Peltosaurus"" called ""P. minimus"" in 1976, extending the fossil range of ""Peltosaurus"" and Glyptosaurinae into the Neogene. However, these bones were later referred to a genus of skinks called ""Eumeces"", meaning that the fossil range of ""Peltosaurus"" and Glyptosaurinae does not go beyond the Paleogene. The name ""Peltosaurus"" was going to be used for the dinosaur now named ""Sauropelta"", but when it was realized that the name was preoccupied, ""Sauropelta"" was substituted. Peltosaurus Peltosaurus is an extinct genus of anguid lizard from North America that"
"to the Ceratopsia (which name is derived from Ancient Greek, meaning 'horned face'), a group of herbivorous dinosaurs with parrot-like beaks, which thrived in North America and Asia during the Cretaceous Period. It is closely related to ""Leptoceratops"", which it antedates by several million years. It is characterized by a lower, more sloping head than that of ""Leptoceratops"". ""Prenoceratops"", like all ceratopsians, was a herbivore. During the Cretaceous, flowering plants were ""geographically limited on the landscape"", and so it is likely that this dinosaur fed on the predominant plants of the era: ferns, cycads and conifers. It would have used"
"the diplodocoids ""Amphicoelias"", ""Diplodocus"" and ""Supersaurus"". Through the Early to Late Cretaceous, the giants ""Sauroposeidon"", ""Paralititan"", ""Argentinosaurus"", ""Puertasaurus"", ""Antarctosaurus giganteus"", ""Dreadnoughtus schrani"", ""Notocolossus"" and ""Futalognkosaurus"" lived, the earliest being a brachiosaurid, with all latter being titanosaurs. One sparsely known possible giant is ""Huanghetitan ruyangensis"", only known from long ribs. All of the giant genera and species lived in the Late Jurassic to the Late Cretaceous, over a time span of 85 million years, and are independently evolved neosauropods. Insular dwarfism is caused by a reduced growth rate in sauropods, the opposite of which led to the evolution of sauropods. Two"
"of ash, indicating a nearby volcano. The fauna is dominated by tetrapods, ranging from aquatic amphibians to terrestrial turtles, mammals, and dinosaurs. The sole amphibian known is ""Notobatrachus""; turtles are represented by a distinct form that was named ""Condorchelys""; mammals are known from a few genera, including ""Argentoconodon"", ""Asfaltomylos"", and ""Henosferus""; multiple dinosaurs have been identified, including the sauropods ""Volkheimeria"", ""Patagosaurus"", and a potential third genus that is yet unnamed, and theropods include the related ""Piatnitzkysaurus"" and ""Condorraptor"". Patagosaurus Patagosaurus (meaning ""Patagonia lizard"") is an extinct genus of eusauropodan dinosaur from the Middle Jurassic of Patagonia, Argentina. It was first"
"portrayal of hadrosaurs in ""Jurassic Park"", the 1990 science fiction novel by Michael Crichton. Hadrosaur diet Hadrosaurids, also commonly referred to as duck-billed dinosaurs or hadrosaurs, were large terrestrial herbivores. The diet of hadrosaurid dinosaurs remains a subject of debate among paleontologists, especially regarding whether hadrosaurids were grazers who fed on vegetation close to the ground, or browsers who ate higher-growing leaves and twigs. Preserved stomach content findings have indicated they may have been browsers, whereas other studies into jaw movements indicate they may have been grazers. The mouth of a hadrosaur had hundreds of tiny teeth packed into dental"
"might have favoured those with longer necks. (See video ""Neck Impossible"" at reference.) Books: Barosaurus Barosaurus ( ) was a giant, long-tailed, long-necked, plant-eating dinosaur closely related to the more familiar ""Diplodocus"". Remains have been found in the Morrison Formation from the Upper Jurassic Period of Utah and South Dakota (and possibly Africa, as exemplified by the Kadsi Formation). It is present in stratigraphic zones 2-5. The composite term ""Barosaurus"" comes from the Greek words ""barys"" (βαρυς) meaning ""heavy"" and ""sauros"" (σαυρος) meaning ""lizard""; thus ""heavy lizard"". ""Barosaurus"" was an enormous animal, with some adults measuring more than 26 meters"
"rock, which turned out to be the entire body of a brontosaur nearly 70 feet long. Earl Douglass Earl Douglass (October 28, 1862 – January 13, 1931) was an American paleontologist who discovered the dinosaur ""Apatosaurus"", playing a central role in one of the most important fossil finds in North America. By 1922 Earl had unearthed and shipped more than 700,000 pounds of material including nearly 20 complete skeletons of Jurassic dinosaurs such as Diplodocus, Dryosaurus, Stegosaurus, Barosaurus, Camarasaurus and Brontosaurus. Douglass was born on October 28, 1862 in Medford, Minnesota, the son of Fernando and Abigail Louisa Carpenter Douglass."
"Tianchisaurus Tianchisaurus (meaning ""heavenly pool lizard"") is a genus of ankylosaurian dinosaur from the middle Jurassic Period (Bajocian–Bathonian stages) of China. If it actually belongs to the family Ankylosauridae as proposed by Dong Zhiming, it would be the earliest member of that family. Unlike other ankylosaurids, it lacked a bony club at the tip of its tail. The type specimen was informally referred to as ""Jurassosaurus"" after the 1993 film ""Jurassic Park"", and the species epithet ""nedegoapeferima"" is formed from the surnames of the film's main stars: Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Richard Attenborough, Bob Peck, Martin Ferrero, Ariana"
"is ""A. fragilis"". The bulk of ""Allosaurus"" remains have come from North America's Morrison Formation, with material also known from Portugal and possibly Tanzania. It was known for over half of the 20th century as ""Antrodemus"", but a study of the copious remains from the Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry brought the name """"Allosaurus"""" back to prominence and established it as one of the best-known dinosaurs. As the most abundant large predator in the Morrison Formation, ""Allosaurus"" was at the top of the food chain, probably preying on contemporaneous large herbivorous dinosaurs, and perhaps even other predators. Potential prey included ornithopods, stegosaurids,"