Description | 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 21–22.8 m (69–75 ft), and an average mass of 16.4–22.4 t (16.1–22.0 long tons; 18.1–24.7 short tons). A few specimens indicate a maximum length of 11–30% greater than average and a mass of 32.7–72.6 t (32.2–71.5 long tons; 36.0–80.0 short tons).
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Source Data | |
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Rank | species |
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Taxonomy (GBIF) | Life : Animalia : Chordata : Reptilia : Dinosauria : Diplodocidae : Apatosaurus : Apatosaurus ajax |
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Taxonomy (PBDB) | Life : Animalia : Chordata : Saurischia : Diplodocidae : Apatosaurus : Apatosaurus ajax |
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Taxonomic Status (GBIF) | accepted |
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Classification (PBDB,GBIF) | |
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Generic Name | Apatosaurus |
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Scientific Name | Apatosaurus ajax Marsh, 1877 |
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Name Published In | Marsh, Othniel C. 1877. Notice of new dinosaurian reptiles from the Jurassic formations. The American Journal of Science and Arts, Series 3 14: 514–516. |
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Opinions (PBDB) | Name | Rank | Opinion | Evidence | Author |
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Apatosaurus ajax | species | belongs to Apatosaurus | stated without evidence | Marsh, 1877 | Apatosaurus ajax | species | belongs to Apatosaurus | stated with evidence | Zittel, 1890 | Apatosaurus ajax | species | belongs to Apatosaurus | stated without evidence | Marsh, 1896 | Apatosaurus ajax | species | belongs to Apatosaurus | stated with evidence | Tatarinov, 1964 | Apatosaurus ajax | species | belongs to Apatosaurus | stated without evidence | Swinton, 1970 | Apatosaurus ajax | species | belongs to Atlantosaurus | stated without evidence | Steel, 1970 | Apatosaurus ajax | species | belongs to Apatosaurus | stated without evidence | Mcintosh and Berman, 1975 | Apatosaurus ajax | species | belongs to Apatosaurus | stated with evidence | McIntosh, 1990 | Apatosaurus ajax | species | belongs to Apatosaurus | stated without evidence | McIntosh, 1995 | Apatosaurus ajax | species | belongs to Apatosaurus | stated with evidence | Upchurch et al., 2004 | Apatosaurus ajax | species | belongs to Apatosaurus | stated without evidence | Chure et al., 2006 | Apatosaurus ajax | species | nomen dubium Apatosaurus | stated without evidence | Galiano and Albersdörfer, 2010 | Apatosaurus ajax | species | belongs to Apatosaurus | stated without evidence | Tschopp and Mateus, 2013 | Apatosaurus ajax | species | belongs to Apatosaurus | stated with evidence | Tschopp et al., 2015 | Apatosaurus ajax | species | belongs to Apatosaurus | stated without evidence | Foster and Peterson, 2016 |
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Status (PBDB) | extinct |
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Taxon Size (PBDB) | 1 |
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First Recorded Appearance | 157 - 145 Ma Jurassic |
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Last Recorded Appearance | 157 - 145 Ma Jurassic |
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Environment | terrestrial (based on Sauropoda) |
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Motility | actively mobile (based on Sauropoda) |
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Diet | herbivore (based on Sauropoda) |
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Reproduction | oviparous, dispersal=direct/internal,mobile (based on Sauropoda) |
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Ontogeny | accretion,modification of parts (based on Sauropoda) |
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Taphonomy | hydroxylapatite,compact or dense,thick (based on Sauropoda) |
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Primary Reference (PBDB) | O. C. Marsh. 1877. Notice of new dinosaurian reptiles from the Jurassic formation. American Journal of Science and Arts 14:514-516 |
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Wikipedia | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apatosaurus_ajax |
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Marsh O. C. Notice of new dinosaurian reptiles from the Jurassic formation, American Journal of Science and Arts 14, 514-516 |
Zittel K. A. v. , Handbuch der Palaeontologie. I. Abteilung Paleozoologie. III. Band. Vertebrata (Pisces, Amphibia, Reptilia, Aves) [Handbook of Paleontology. Division I. Paleozoology. Volume III. Vertebrata (Pisces, Amphibia, Reptilia, Aves)], xii-900 |
Marsh O. C. The dinosaurs of North America, United States Geological Survey, 16th Annual Report, 1894-95 55, 133-244 |
Hay O. P. (1902) , Bibliography and Catalogue of the Fossil Vertebrata of North America. Bulletin of the United States Geological Survey 179, 1-868 |
Johnson J. H. (1931) The paleontology of the Denver quadrangle, Colorado, Colorado Scientific Society, Proceedings 12 11, 355-378 |
Tatarinov L. P. (1964) Nadotryad Dinosauria. Dinozavry [Superorder Dinosauria. Dinosaurs], Osnovy Paleontologii [Fundamentals of Paleontology] 12, 523-589 |
Steel R. (1970) Part 14. Saurischia, Handbuch der Paläoherpetologie/Encyclopedia of Paleoherpetology. Gustav Fischer Verlag, Stuttgart, 1-87 |
Swinton W. E. (1970) , The Dinosaurs, Wiley-Interscience, New York, 1-331 |
McIntosh J. S. (1981) Annotated catalogue of the dinosaurs (Reptilia, Archosauria) in the collections of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Bulletin of Carnegie Museum of Natural History 18, 1-67 |
McIntosh J. S. (1990) Species determination in sauropod dinosaurs with tentative suggestions for their classification, Dinosaur Systematics: Perspectives and Approaches, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 53-69 |
Upchurch P., Barrett P. M., et al (2004) Sauropoda, The Dinosauria (2nd edition). University of California Press, Berkeley, 259-322 |
Upchurch P., Tomida Y., et al (2004) A new specimen of Apatosaurus ajax (Sauropoda, Diplodocidae) from the Morrison Formation (Upper Jurassic) of Wyoming, USA, National Science Museum Monographs 26, 1-118 |
Chure D. J., Litwin R., et al (2006) The fauna and flora of the Morrison Formation: 2006, Paleontology and Geology of the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin 36, 233-249 |
Mateus O. (2006) Late Jurassic dinosaurs from the Morrison Formation (USA), the Lourinhã and Alcobaça Formations (Portugal), and the Tendaguru Beds (Tanzania): a comparison, Paleontology and Geology of the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin 36, 223-231 |
Tschopp E., Mateus O. (2013) The skull and neck of a new flagellicaudatan sauropod from the Morrison Formation and its implication for the evolution and ontogeny of diplodocid dinosaurs, Journal of Systematic Palaeontology 11 7, 853-888 doi:10.1080/14772019.2012.746589 |
Saegusa H., Ikeda T. (2014) A new titanosauriform sauropod (Dinosauria: Saurischia) from the Lower Cretaceous of Hyogo, Japan, Zootaxa 3848 1, 1-66 doi:10.11646/zootaxa.3848.1.1 |
Tschopp E., Mateus O., et al (2015) A specimen-level phylogenetic analysis and taxonomic revision of Diplodocidae (Dinosauria, Sauropoda), PeerJ 3, e857 doi:10.7717/peerj.857 |
Foster J. R., Peterson J. E. (2016) First report of Apatosaurus (Diplodocidae: Apatosaurinae) from the Cleveland-Lloyd Quarry in the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation of Utah: abundance, distribution, paleoecology, and taphonomy of an endemic North American sauropod clade, Palaeoworld 25, 431-443 doi:10.1016/j.palwor.2015.11.006 |
O. C. Marsh (1877) Notice of new dinosaurian reptiles from the Jurassic formation: American Journal of Science and Arts: 514--516 - via Catalogue of Life |
E. Tschopp, O. Mateus, R. B. J. Benson (2015) A specimen-level phylogenetic analysis and taxonomic revision of Diplodocidae (Dinosauria, Sauropoda): PeerJ: e857 (10.7717/peerj.857) - via Catalogue of Life |