Apatosaurus Facts
Apatosaurus Facts
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| Interesting Apatosaurus Facts: |
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| Apatosaurus was able to reach length of 75 feet and weight of 25 to 40 tons. |
| Apatosaurus was fully grown at the age of 10 to 15 years and it probably lived until the age of 31 years. |
| Apatosaurus had very small head (compared to the rest of the body), long, wide neck and 50-feet-long, whip-like tail. It had sturdy legs with a single claw on the front feet and three claws on the hind feet. Its front legs were slightly shorter than hind legs. |
| Apatosaurus had very thick neck which was relatively "light" thanks to the system of air sacs in it. Flexibility and actual position of Apatosaurus neck (parallel to the ground or upright?) are still a mystery. |
| Shortly after discovery of Apatosaurus, archaeologists have found set of very large bones and officially named this "newly-discovered" species of dinosaur as "Brontosaurus". After thorough investigation of bones, it was discovered that Brontosaurus is actually adult Apatosaurus. However, term "Brontosaurus" became widely accepted by dinosaur fans before "two species" were declared as one. |
| Name "Apatosaurus" is reserved for the scientific community. It means "deceptive lizard" and it refers to the morphological similarities with aquatic reptile called Mosasaurus and false assumption that Apatosaurus was partially aquatic creature. |
| Based on the footprint found in 2008, scientists concluded that hatchlings and young apatosauruses were able to run on the hind legs to keep the pace with the rest of the herd and escape from the predators. |
| Natural enemy of Apatosaurus was Allosaurus. Long tail of Apatosaurus was used to intimidate predators. |
| Apatosaurus was a herbivore. Its diet was based on low-lying plants and potentially on the soft leaves from the tall trees. |
| Apatosaurus had chisel-like teeth, but it didn't use them for chewing. Instead, it consumed stones along with plants to facilitate grinding of food in the stomach. |
| Apatosaurus had to consume 880 pounds of plants per day in order to survive. |
| Apatosaurus traveled 16 to 25 miles per day, at the speed of 12 to 19 miles per hour, to find food. |
| Due to large amount of swallowed food, Apatosaurus was producing huge amount of methane (greenhouse gas) each day. With approximately 520 million tons of methane produced each year, Apatosaurus and other herbivorous dinosaurs had significant effect on the global climate. |
| Apatosaurus is an official logo of Sinclair oil company. |
| Apatosaurus "played" pet dinosaur called "Dino" in popular movie and cartoon Flintstones. |
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