Apatosaurus belongs to a group of dinosaurs called sauropods.

The name means ‘deceptive lizard’ because the chevron bones

were like those of Mososaurus.


 

This group of herbivorous (plant-eating) dinosaurs consists of the largest animals that

 ever lived on land. An animal this size probably needed to eat more than a ton of

vegetation a day just to stay alive. Hollow spaces in the neck bones allowed

them to be strong, yet kept the neck from being too heavy.

The Morrison Formation in Wyoming has yielded some of the most plentiful and

amazing dinosaur discoveries of anywhere in the world to date. This specimen weighed

about 25 tons in life. University of Wyoming Geological Museum Curator S.H. Knight

obtained this skeleton for the University of Wyoming in 1956 and built this mount

between 1959 and 1961.  This is one of only six specimens found in the world to date.

The cervical vertebrae and the bones in the legs were bigger and heavier than that of

Diplodocus suggesting a more robust animal although, like Diplodocus, Apatosaurus also

had both a long neck and a long tail. The tail was held above the ground during normal locomotion. Like most sauropods, Apatosaurus had only a single large claw on each forelimb.

This specimen is an excellent example of the collaborative projects that TPI is involved with. 

TPI staff is providing the cleaning, restoration, molding, casting and remounting of this

prized specimen for the University of Wyoming.  The result is the opportunity for your

facility to have a cast replica of this spectacular specimen in your collections. 

Orders are being taken now for delivery in March 2008.