# Apatosaurus (Apatosaurus ajax) — DinoLand

> Field Journal — free dinosaur encyclopedia: 33 species with photos and video, catalog, ancient world maps (Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous, Gondwana), quiz, and paleontology glossary.

### id=14: Apatosaurus (Apatosaurus ajax)

- URL: https://www.dinoland.ai/species.html?lang=en&id=14
- Diet: Herbivore
- Era: Jurassic
- Period: 152–151 million years ago
- Length: 23 m
- Weight: ≈16–22 t
- Height: 4,5 m
- Speed: ≈10 km/h
- Habitat: Riverine forests and broad alluvial bottoms
- Region: North America
- Discovered: 1877, Othniel Charles Marsh

Fact: “The legendary ‘Brontosaurus’ confusion—massive feet and a cracking tail.”

Description: Apatosaurus is a robust diplodocine sauropod historically conflated with the name Brontosaurus through a tangled twentieth-century taxonomy. Columnar limbs supported a deep thorax and very long whiplash tail possibly employed in display and defense. Microwear and replacement patterns in its pencil-like teeth align with bulk browsing on ferns, conifers, and other Jurassic understory plants.

Features:
  - A supersonic tail crack remains plausible under high-force whipping models
  - Fifteen cervical vertebrae support a moderately elevated neck
  - The genus name Apatosaurus means ‘deceptive lizard’

Related genera: Brontosaurus, Diplodocus, Barosaurus


## Citation

Field Journal — Dinosaur Encyclopedia — https://www.dinoland.ai

Web: https://www.dinoland.ai/species.html?lang=en&id=14
Index: https://www.dinoland.ai/llms-en.txt