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Camarasaurus lentus

Camarasaurus was one of the most common sauropods during the Late Jurassic. It was during this period that sauropods reached their apex. Camarasaurus, Diplodocus, Apatosaurus and a variety of Brachiosaurs all thrived. While Camarasaurus was a "no show" among the sauropod giants of longest, tallest and heaviest, it was still huge and successful. It reached lengths of up to 18 meters (60 feet) and weighed up to 20 tons. Camarasaurs were more compact sauropods than many others, having shorter necks and tails than its larger cousins. An adult person could still stand under its belly without bumping his head or mussing his hair!

Camarasaurs were plant eaters and browsed the tall conifers that dominated the Late Jurassic woodlands, which they shared with stegosaurs and allosaurs as well as other sauropods. Fossil remains of Camarasaurus have been found in North America, Africa, Asia and Europe, and it is among the most common sauropods discovered.

An interesting footnote in dinosaur lore concerns O.C. Marsh and his reconstruction of a Brontosaurus in 1883. The skeleton he mounted at the Yale Peabody Museum was mostly complete, but lacked a skull. Marsh incorrectly choose a camarasaur head from a nearby find to complete his work. Hints of the error surfaced periodically, but it was nearly 100 years later that the error was finally corrected, and the Brontosaurus (now correctly called Apatosaurus) had a more appropriate Diplodocus-like skull.

Taxonomy
Sauropod dinosaurs were the largest creatures to ever walk the earth. Their size is staggering, even among the smaller species. Camarasaurs, diplodocids and brachiosaurs are the three main groups of sauropods. All had long necks with tiny heads, long tails, and pillar like legs. The differences are in the details.

Unlike diplodocids and brachiosaurs, the fore and hind legs of camarasaurs were about the same length, so the animal presented a more "level" appearance than the others. Diplodocids have shorter forelimbs and a more arched, head-down profile, and brachiosaurs have longer forelimbs and a taller, forward sloping look. Camarasaur skulls are markedly different, especially from the diplodocids. Camarasaur skulls are tall, heavily-built and have a blunt snout, where Diplodocus has a long, low skull. Look at the teeth of your model. They are flat and spoon-shaped and are placed in the front of the mouth as well as along the sides. Diplodocus only has peg-like teeth in the front of its mouth.

Anatomy
Dinosaur skulls have lots of confusing openings, and it can be difficult to figure out exactly what is what. The drawings name the major ones. Find the nasal openings (nares). Camarasaurs have large nostrils, a possible indication of the importance of its sense of smell. These nasal openings are on the sides of the head, in front of and above the eyes. This placement is different from other sauropods. Both diplodocids and brachiosaurs have nostrils on the top of their heads.

The old notion that diplodocids, and all sauropods in general, were too large to live on land and thus had an aquatic lifestyle has been shown to be wrong. There is some evidence to suggest that they traveled in groups, if not herds, and that immature animals may have lived with older animals. Sauropods prospered from the Early Jurassic right through to the end of the Cretaceous, but their zenith was during the Jurassic-Cretaceous transition, when they were the dominant herbivores.

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