Camarasaurus supremus

Chapter • Meet the dinosaur

Overview

Camarasaurus supremus was the largest species of the genus Camarasaurus and one of the most common giant sauropods of Late Jurassic North America. It had a deep, barrel-shaped body carried on four pillar-like limbs, and a comparatively short neck and tail compared with contemporaries such as Diplodocus and Apatosaurus. Because the forelimbs were nearly as long as the hind limbs, the back sloped only gently, with the high point over the hips. The skull was short, boxy and blunt, with huge nasal openings in front of the eyes and rows of stout, spoon-shaped teeth. Like all sauropods it was covered in scaly skin — feather-like structures are known only from other branches of the dinosaur family tree.

Chapter • Where it lived

Habitat

Camarasaurus supremus lived roughly 155–145 million years ago, in the Kimmeridgian and Tithonian stages of the Late Jurassic. Its fossils come almost entirely from the Morrison Formation of the western United States, with sites in Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and New Mexico. The setting was a vast, seasonally dry floodplain crossed by meandering rivers, dotted with ephemeral lakes and stands of conifers, ginkgoes, cycads and ferns. Wet seasons turned the river valleys green and productive, while long dry spells forced large herbivores to crowd around water or move on. The type material was quarried at Garden Park north of Cañon City, Colorado, while other rich localities such as Dinosaur National Monument and the Cleveland-Lloyd Quarry have yielded abundant additional Camarasaurus bones.

Chapter • Family life

Breeding

Chapter • Wild behavior

Behavior & Ecology

Did you know?

Chapter • Scientific place

Taxonomy