| Barosaurus | |
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| Scientific classification |
Barosaurus is a species of very large sauropod that lived in Late Jurassic. It is related to Diplodocus and Apatosaurus. Like most of the other sauropod species in Diplodocidae, it has a long, slender neck, stout, column-like limbs, and a long whip-like tail.
One primary difference between Barosaurus and Diplodocus is that it has 16 neck vertebrae, as opposed to the usual 15. Also, the vertebrae were about a third longer in length than its relatives.
Barosaurus fossils are found in the USA and Tanzania and the average skeleton is about 93 feet (29 meters) long. It is a candidate for being one of the largest, if not the largest land animal and dinosaur in history.
Description[]
Barosaurus was large, even for Sauropod standards. Despite being closely related to the more famous Diplodocus, Barosaurus was proportioned differently. It had a longer neck, but a shorter tail. This longer neck supports the theory that the numerous Jurassic Sauropods were able to peacefully coexist together without contradicting each other's source of food, by feeding from different levels in the trees. Barosaurus' long neck may have allowed it to feed in a more diverse range. Aside from lengthy proportions, Barosaurus somewhat resembled an average Diplodocid Sauropod. It had a narrow, flat, long skull with peg-like pencil teeth used for stripping plants of their leaves. Despite having a shorter tail, it is still theorized that Barosaurus could've used its tail to some defensive degree. To prove the point that Barosaurus in several ways is indistinguishable from other large Diplodocids, the forefeet bones of Barosaurus are virtually identical to those of Diplodocus.
Classification and systematics[]
Discovery and naming[]
Paleobiology[]
Paleoecology[]
Barosaurus lived alongside numerous other Late Jurassic animals. Barosaurus would've shared its environment with similar Sauropods such as Diplodocus, Apatosaurus, Camarasaurus, Brachiosaurus, abd Supersaurus, as well as predatory dinosaurs such as Allosaurus, Torvosaurus, and Ceratosaurus. Barosaurus was one of the many Jurassic-dwelling animals that lived in the Morrison Formation, a giant formation of sedimentary stretching across numerous Western North American states.
In popular culture[]
- Barosaurus made an appearance in the Roblox game called "Dinosaur Simulator".
Gallery[]
