Camarasaurus

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Camarasaurus

Camarasaurus ( KAM-uh-ruh-SAWR-us) meaning 'chambered lizard', referring to the holes in its vertebrae (Greek

Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek is the historical stage in the development of the Greek language spanning across the Archaic Greece , Classical Greece , and Hellenistic civilization periods of ancient Greece and the classical antiquity....
?aµa?a/kamara meaning 'vaulted chamber', or anything with an arched cover, and sa????/sauros meaning 'lizard') was a genus

Genus

A genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the classification of living and fossil organisms. The taxonomic ranks are domain , kingdom , phylum, class , order , family , genus, and species....
of quadruped

Quadruped

Quadrupedalism is a form of Terrestrial locomotion in animals using four limbs or leg . An animal or machine that usually moves in a quadrupedal manner is known as a quadruped, meaning "four feet" ....
al, herbivorous

Herbivore

Herbivory is a form of predation in which an organism, known as an herbivore, heterotrophs principally autotrophs such as plants, algae and photosynthesizing bacteria....
dinosaur

Dinosaur

Dinosaurs were the dominant vertebrate animals of Landform ecosystems for over 160 million years, from the late Triassic Period until the end of the Cretaceous Period , when most of them became extinct in the Cretaceous?Tertiary extinction event....
s. It was the most common of the giant sauropods to be found in North America

North America

North America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and almost totally in the western hemisphere....
but only average in size: about 18 meters (60 ft) in length as adults, and weighing up to 18 tonnes (19.8 tons

Short ton

The short ton is a unit of weight equal to 2,000 Pound . In the United States it is often called simply ton without distinguishing it from the metric ton or the long ton ; rather, the other two are specifically noted....
).

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Encyclopedia

Camarasaurus ( KAM-uh-ruh-SAWR-us) meaning 'chambered lizard', referring to the holes in its vertebrae (Greek

Ancient Greek

Genus

Quadruped

Herbivore

Herbivory is a form of predation in which an organism, known as an herbivore, heterotrophs principally autotrophs such as plants, algae and photosynthesizing bacteria....
dinosaur

Dinosaur

North America

Short ton

Jurassic

The Jurassic is a geologic period that extends from about annum to Ma, that is, from the end of the Triassic to the beginning of the Cretaceous....
Period, between 155 and 145 million years ago. A Camarasaurus pelvis recovered from Dinosaur National Monument in Utah shows gouging attributed to Allosaurus
Allosaurus

Allosaurus is a genus of large theropod dinosaur that lived 155 to 145 million years ago, in the late Jurassic Period . The name Allosaurus means "different lizard" and is derived from the Ancient Greek a????/allos and sa????/sauros ....
.

Anatomy

The arched skull

Skull

The skull is a bone structure found in the head of many animals. The skull supports the structures of the face and protects the head against injury....
of Camarasaurus may have contributed to the name 'chambered lizard'. The skull was remarkably square and the blunt snout had many fenestrae

Fenestrae

Fenestr? also from the Latin for window,are small pores in epithelial cells to allow for rapid exchange of molecules between blood vessels and surrounding tissue....
, though it was sturdy and is frequently recovered in good condition by paleontologists.

The 19 centimeter long (7.5 in) teeth were shaped like chisel

Chisel

A chisel is a tool with a characteristically shaped cutting edge of blade on its end, for carving or cutting a hard material such as wood, Rock , or Metalworking....
s (spatulate) and arranged evenly along the jaw. The strength of the teeth indicates that Camarasaurus probably ate coarser plant material than the slender-toothed diplodocid

Diplodocid

Diplodocids, or members of the family Diplodocidae , are a group of sauropod dinosaurs. The family includes some of the longest creatures ever to walk the earth, including Diplodocus and Supersaurus, which may have reached lengths of up to 34 m , and the gigantic Amphicoelias, known from a single vertebrae representing an in...
s. Like a chicken

Chicken

The chicken is a Domestication fowl. Recent evidence suggests that domestication of the chicken was under way in Vietnam over 10,000 years ago....
, it may have swallowed stones (gastrolith

Gastrolith

Gastroliths are Rock , which are or have been held inside the Gastrointestinal tract of an animal. Among living vertebrates, gastroliths are common among Herbivore birds, crocodiles, alligators, seals and Sea Lion....
s) to help grind the food in the stomach

Stomach

In most mammals, the stomach is a hollow muscular organ of the gastrointestinal tract involved in the second phase of digestion, following mastication....
and then regurgitated or passed them when they became too smooth.

Each giant foot bore five toes, with the inner toe having a large sharpened claw

Claw

A claw is a curved, pointed appendage, found at the end of a toe or finger in most mammals, birds, and some reptiles. Somewhat similar fine hooked structures are found in arthropods such as beetles and spiders, at the end of the leg or Arthropod leg for gripping a surface as the creature walks....
for self-defense. Like most sauropods, the front legs were shorter than the hind legs, but the high position of the shoulder

Shoulder

In human anatomy, the shoulder joint comprises the part of the body where the humerus attaches to the scapula. The shoulder refers to the group of structures in the region of the joint....
s meant there was little slope in the back. In some sauropods, there were long upward projections on each vertebra

Vertebra

A vertebra is an individual bone in the flexible column that defines vertebrate animals. The vertebral column encases and protects the spinal cord, which runs from the base of the cranium down the dorsal side of the animal until reaching the pelvis....
but the absence of such structures from the spine

Vertebral column

In human anatomy, the vertebral column is a column of 24 vertebrae, the sacrum, intervertebral discs, and the coccyx situated in the dorsum aspect of the torso, separated by spinal discs....
of Camarasaurus suggests that it was not able to raise itself on its hind legs.

The vertebrae were nevertheless specialised. Serving the purpose of weight-saving, as seen in many later sauropods, some of the vertebrae were hollowed out. This feature may have contributed to the name "chambered lizard". Like a modern elephant

Elephant

Elephants are large land mammals of the order Proboscidea and the family Elephantidae. There are three living species: the African Bush Elephant, the African Forest Elephant and the Asian Elephant ....
, Camarasaurus appears to have had a wedge of spongy tissue

Biological tissue

Tissue is a cellular organizational level intermediate between cells and a complete organism. Hence, a tissue is an ensemble of cells, not necessarily identical, but from the same origin, that together carry out a specific function....
at the base of the heel, to support the weight of such a large creature. The neck and counter-balancing tail were shorter than usual for a sauropod of this size.

Camarasaurus, again like certain other sauropods, had an enlargement of the spinal cord

Spinal cord

The spinal cord is a long, thin, tubular bundle of neuron and glia that extends from the brain. The brain and spinal cord together make up the central nervous system....
near the hips. Palaeontologists originally believed this to be a second brain

Brain

The brain is the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate, and most invertebrate, animals. Some primitive animals such as cnidarian and echinoderm have a decentralized nervous system without a brain, while sponges lack any nervous system at all....
, perhaps necessary to co-ordinate such a huge creature. Modern opinion asserts that, while it would have been an area of large nervous possibly reflex (automatic) activity, it was not a brain. However, this enlargement was actually larger than the remarkably small brain contained in the animals' box-like skull.

Behaviour

There is a fossil record of two adults and a 12.2 meter (40 ft) long juvenile that died together in the Late Jurassic Period, approximately 150 million years ago (in north east Wyoming

Wyoming

The State of Wyoming is a sparsely populated U.S. state in the Northwestern United States of the United States. The majority of the state is dominated by the mountain ranges and rangelands of the Rocky Mountains, while the easternmost section of the state is a high altitude prairie region known as the High Plains ....
, USA, excavated by the Division of Vertebrate Paleontology of the University of Kansas Natural History Museum

University of Kansas Natural History Museum

The University of Kansas Natural History Museum is part of the University of Kansas Natural History Museum and Biodiversity Research Center, which is itself part of the KU Biodiversity Institute....
and Biodiversity Center, during the 1997 and 1998 'field seasons'). It is assumed that their bodies were washed to their final resting place, in alluvial mud, by a river in spate. This suggests that Camarasaurus traveled in herd

Herd

A herd is a large group of animals. The term is usually applied to mammals, particularly ungulates. Other terms are used for similar phenomena in other types of animal....
s or, at least, 'family' groups. Also, recovered camarasaur eggs

Egg (biology)

In most birds and reptiles, an egg is the zygote, resulting from fertilization of the ovum. To enable incubation the egg is usually kept within a favourable temperature range as it nourishes and protects the growing embryo....
have been found in lines, rather than in neatly arranged nest

Nest

A nest is a place of refuge to hold an animal's Egg s and/or provide a place to live or raise offspring. They are usually made of some life material such as twigs, grass, and leaf; or may simply be a depression in the ground, or a hole in a tree, rock or building....
s as with some other dinosaurs, which appears to suggest that, like most sauropods, Camarasaurus did not tend its young.

Discovery

The first record of Camarasaurus comes from 1877, when a few scattered vertebra

Vertebra

Colorado

The State of Colorado is a U.S. state located in the Mountain States of the United States of America. Colorado may also be considered to be a part of the Western United States and Southwestern United States regions of the United States....
, by Oramel W. Lucas. The paleontologist Edward Drinker Cope

Edward Drinker Cope

Edward Drinker Cope was an United States paleontology and comparative anatomy, as well as a noted herpetology and ichthyology.Born to a wealthy Society of Friends family, Cope quickly distinguished himself as a child prodigy interested in science; he published his first scientific paper in 1859....
paid for the bones, as part of his long-running and acrimonious competition with Othniel Charles Marsh

Othniel Charles Marsh

Othniel Charles Marsh was one of the pre-eminent paleontologists of the 19th century, who discovered and named many fossils found in the American West....
(known as the Bone Wars

Bone Wars

The Bone Wars, also known as the "Great Dinosaur Rush", refers to a period of intense fossil speculation and discovery during the Gilded Age of American history, marked by a heated rivalry between Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh ....
) and named them in the same year. Marsh later named some of his sauropod findings Morosaurus grandis but most paleontologists today consider this to be a species of Camarasaurus . Such naming conflicts were common between the two rival dinosaur hunters, the most famous being Brontosaurus
Apatosaurus

Apatosaurus , also formerly known as Brontosaurus, is a genus of sauropod dinosaur that lived about 150 Annum, during the Jurassic Period ....
/Apatosaurus
Apatosaurus

Apatosaurus , also formerly known as Brontosaurus, is a genus of sauropod dinosaur that lived about 150 Annum, during the Jurassic Period ....
.

It was not until 1925 that a complete skeleton of Camarasaurus was recovered, by Charles W. Gilmore

Charles W. Gilmore

'Charles Whitney Gilmore' was an United States Palaeontology, who named dinosaurs in North America and Mongolia, including the Cretaceous sauropod Alamosaurus, Alectrosaurus, Archaeornithomimus, Bactrosaurus, Brachyceratops, Chirostenotes, Mongolosaurus, Parrosaurus, Pinacosaurus, Styracosaurus and Th...
. However, it was the skeleton from a young Camarasaurus, which is why so many illustrations of the dinosaur from the time show it to be much smaller than it is now known to be.

The Morrison Formation, along the eastern flank of the Rocky Mountains

Rocky Mountains

The Rocky Mountains, often called the Rockies, are a mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch more than 4,800 kilometre from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in Canada, to New Mexico, in the United States....
, is home to a rich stretch of Late Jurassic rock. A large number of dinosaur species can be found here, including relatives of the Camarasaurus such as Diplodocus
Diplodocus

Diplodocus is a genus of diplodocid sauropod dinosaur whose fossils were first discovered in 1877 by Samuel Wendell Williston. The generic name, coined by Othniel Charles Marsh in 1878, is a Neo-Latin term derived from Ancient Greek "double" and "beam", in reference to its double-beamed chevron located in the underside of the tail....
, Apatosaurus
Apatosaurus

Apatosaurus , also formerly known as Brontosaurus, is a genus of sauropod dinosaur that lived about 150 Annum, during the Jurassic Period ....
and Brachiosaurus
Brachiosaurus

Brachiosaurus , meaning "arm lizard", from the Ancient Greek brachion/??a???? meaning "arm" and sauros/sa???? meaning "lizard", was a genus of sauropod dinosaur that lived during the Late Jurassic Period and possibly the Early Cretaceous Period ....
. However, camarasaurs are the most abundant of all the dinosaurs in the Formation. There have been a number of complete skeletons recovered from Colorado

Colorado

New Mexico

New Mexico is a U. S. State located in the Southwestern United States of the United States. Inhabited by Native Americans in the United States populations for many centuries, it has also has been part of the Spanish Empire viceroyalty of New Spain, part of Mexico, and a U.S....
, Utah

Utah

The State of Utah is a western United States U.S. state of the United States. It was the List of U.S. states by date of statehood admitted to the United States on January 4, 1896....
, and Wyoming

Wyoming

The State of Wyoming is a sparsely populated U.S. state in the Northwestern United States of the United States. The majority of the state is dominated by the mountain ranges and rangelands of the Rocky Mountains, while the easternmost section of the state is a high altitude prairie region known as the High Plains ....
.

A recent discovery was made in Old Snowmass, Colorado.

Classification

The scientific classification

Scientific classification

Biological classification or scientific classification in biology, is a method by which biologists group and categorize species of organisms....
of Camarasaurus, using the Linnaean system, is given in the box to the upper right but, among palaeontologists, this method of taxonomic classification of dinosaurs is being supplanted by the cladistics

Cladistics

Cladistics is the hierarchical classification of species based on evolutionary ancestry. Cladistics is distinguished from other taxonomic systems because it focuses on evolution rather than similarities between species, and because it places heavy emphasis on objective, quantitative analysis....
inspired phylogenetic taxonomy. A simplified version of one possible branching evolutionary tree, showing the relationship between Camarasaurus and the other major groups of sauropods, follows:

Saurischia

Saurischia

Saurischia is one of the two Order s, or basic divisions, of dinosaurs. In 1888, Harry Seeley classified dinosaurs into two orders, based on their hip structure....
("lizard hipped" dinosaurs) `--Sauropoda

Sauropoda

Sauropoda , or the sauropods , are an Order or clade of saurischian dinosaurs. They notable for the enormous sizes attained by some species, and the group includes many of the largest animals to have ever lived on land....
("lizard feet") |--Macronaria

Macronaria

Macronaria is a clade of sauropod dinosaurs from the Middle Jurassic to Late Cretaceous Period of what are now North America, South America, Europe, Asia and Africa....
("large nostrils") | |--Camarasauridae | `--Titanosauriformes ||--Brachiosauridae

Brachiosauridae

Brachiosauridae are a family of dinosaurs, whose members are known as brachiosaurids. They were herbivore quadrupeds with longer forelegs than hind legs - the name derives from the Greek language for arm lizard - and long, 45-degree angle necks....
(which includes Brachiosaurus
Brachiosaurus

Brachiosaurus , meaning "arm lizard", from the Ancient Greek brachion/??a???? meaning "arm" and sauros/sa???? meaning "lizard", was a genus of sauropod dinosaur that lived during the Late Jurassic Period and possibly the Early Cretaceous Period ....
and Sauroposeidon
Sauroposeidon

Sauroposeidon is a genus of sauropod dinosaur known from four neck vertebrae that were found in the southwestern portion of the US state of Oklahoma....
) |`--Titanosauria (dinosaurs such as Argentinosaurus
Argentinosaurus

Argentinosaurus is a genus of sauropod dinosaur first discovered by Guillermo Heredia in Argentina. The generic name means "silver lizard", in reference to the country in which it was discovered ....
) `--Diplodocoidea

Diplodocoidea

Diplodocoidea was a superfamily of sauropod dinosaurs, which included some of the longest animals of all time, including slender giants like Supersaurus, Diplodocus, Apatosaurus, and Amphicoelias....
(which includes Apatosaurus and Diplodocus) Camarasaurus is considered to be a basal

Basal (phylogenetics)

In phylogenetics, a basal clade is the earliest clade to branch in a larger clade; it appears at the base of a cladogram.A basal group form an outgroup to the rest of the clade, such as in the following example:...
macronarian, more closely related to the common ancestor of all macronarians than to more derived

Derived

In phylogenetics, a trait is derived if it is present in an organism, but was absent in the last common ancestor of the group being considered. This may also refer to structures that are not present in an organism, but were present in its ancestors, i.e. traits that have undergone secondary loss....
forms like Brachiosaurus.

The type species

Type species

In taxonomy, a type species is the species that originally defined a genus . It is an individual specimen that fixes the name of a genus . Two different definitions are used interchangeably, in a general term and a botanical term....
of Camarasaurus is Cope's original species, C. supremus ("the biggest chambered lizard"), named in 1877. Other species since discovered include C. grandis ("grand chambered lizard") in 1877, C. lentus in 1889, and C. lewisi (originally Cathetosaurus) in 1988.

In popular culture

Pleo

Pleo is an animatronic dinosaur toy designed to emulate the appearance and behavior of a week-old baby Camarasaurus. It was designed by Caleb Chung, the co-creator of the Furby, and is manufactured by Ugobe....
, a robot

Robot

A robot is a virtual or mechanical artificial agent. In practice, it is usually an Electromechanics which, by its appearance or movements, conveys a sense that it has Intention or Agency of its own....
pet dinosaur

Dinosaur

Dinosaurs were the dominant vertebrate animals of Landform ecosystems for over 160 million years, from the late Triassic Period until the end of the Cretaceous Period , when most of them became extinct in the Cretaceous?Tertiary extinction event....
made by Ugobe, is based on a juvenile Camarasaurus.

External links

from Palaeos.com
from DinoData.org