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Text File | 1989-09-23 | 961 b | 33 lines | [04] ASCII Text (0x0000) |
- The Apatosaurus was a North
- American herbivore of the late
- Jurassic period.
- This dinosaur is also known as the
- Brontosaurus ("Thunder Lizard").
- Scientists originally mistakenly
- classified the fossils as two
- separate species. When the mistake
- was caught, the name Brontosaurus
- was dropped in favor of the original
- name.
- While neither the largest land
- animal (that would be the
- Brachiosaurus or the newly
- discovered Supersaurus) nor the
- longest (the Diplodocus reached
- lengths up to 100 feet), the
- Apatosaurus was no small fry. At
- sixty feet long and twelve feet
- tall, the Apatosaurus would have
- made a sound like thunder as it
- walked (hence the name).
- The Apatosaurus, Diplodocus and
- Brachiosaurus were members of the
- group of dinosaurs known as
- Sauropods. Sauropods were
- characterized by large, round
- bodies; column-like legs; long,
- heavy tails; and small heads at the
- end of long necks. The Sauropods
- were the chief herbivores of the
- Jurassic period.^
-