ZoomDinosaurs.com ALL ABOUT DINOSAURS!

A: Brontosaurus (now called Apatosaurus) was about 70-90 feet long (21-27 m) and about 15 feet (4.6 m) tall at the hips. It weighed roughly 33-38 tons (30-35 tonnes). Its head was less than 2 feet long.

A: Brontosaurus is now called Apatosaurus. For information on Apatosaurus, click here.

A: Apatosaurus was a sauropod, a type of plant-eating dinosaur that was not particularly intelligent when compared to other dinosaurs.

A: Brontosaurus (now called Apatosaurus) was huge - that was its primary defense. It also had a whip-like tail that may have been used for defense and some foot claws.

A: In order to determine whether or not a fossilized animal nurtured its young, fossil evidence of this must be found. On good type of evidence is finding fossilized eggs in nests with adults and hatchling nearby. This has not been found for Allosaurus, so it is not known whether or not it cared for its young.

A: Brontosaurus (now Apatosaurus) was originally displayed with the wrong skull. For more information on this early paleontological gaffe, see the entry on Apatosaurus.

A: Apatosaurus was called Apatosaurus, which means "deceptive lizard," because its fosisls were so similar to those of other sauropods. It was named in 1877 by US paleontologist Othniel C. Marsh.

A: Yes, Apatosaurus died out many millions of years before T. rex evolved. Apatosaurus lived from 57-146 million years ago; T. rex lived from 85 to 65 million years ago.

A: Brontosaurus (now called Apatosaurus) fossils have been found in Colorado, Oklahoma, Utah, and Wyoming, in the USA.

A: Yes, for more information, click here.

A: Brontosaurus means "thunder lizard."

A: The long-necked dinosaurs, like Brachiosaurus, Apatosaurus, and Diplodocus, are called sauropods.

A: Click here for more information on Brontosaurus (now called Apatosaurus).

A: Apatosaurus (which used to be known as Brontosaurus) belonged to the:

• Kingdom Animalia (animals)
• Phylum Chordata (having a hollow nerve chord ending in a brain)
• Class Archosauria (diapsids with socket-set teeth, etc.)
• Order Saurischia - lizard-hipped dinosaurs, the ancestors of birds
• Sauropodomorph - long-necked, long-tailed plant-eaters who walked on four legs
• Suborder Sauropoda (sauropods) - very large herbivores
• Neosauropoda - advanced sauropods
• Family Diplodocidae - whip-tailed, peg-toothed sauropods with high spines on the vertebrae. These included Amargasaurus, Diplodocus, Barosaurus, Seismosaurus, Supersaurus, and others
• Genus Apatosaurus
• Species A. Ajax (the type species). Other species of Apatosaurus include A. excelsus, A. louisae, and perhaps A. montanus.

A: Yes, the original Brontosuarus (now called Apatosaurus) had the wrong head put on it. The original Brontosaurus fossil, found in 1879, lacked a skull (as many fossils do). Othniel Marsh added a skull found miles away (this skull did not belong to the Brontosaurus, but to a Camarasaurus). In 1900, Henry Osborn assembled another skull-less Brontosaurus at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, adding a cast of Marsh's skull. In 1915, Earl Douglass of the Carnegie Museum found a Brontosaurus fossil that included the skull, but because of Osborn's influence, the Carnegie displayed the fossil skull-less. When Douglas died in 1932, the incorrect skull was put on display! It wasn't until 1975 that the proper skull was mounted on Brontosaurus/Apatosaurus fossils in museums.

For more information on Apatosaurus, click here.

A: Brontosaurus (now called Apatosaurus) was a plant-eater. Apatosaurs' main food was probably conifers, which were the dominant plant when this large sauropod lived.

• Apatosaurus information
• Find It! - A print-out for 2nd Graders. Skills: reading, writing, research, and comprehension.
• An Apatosaurus information page to print and color!
• Print out a K-3 level Apatosaurus info page to color!
• A first-grade level Apatosaurus subtraction activity print-out.
• An Apatosaurus word hunt activity - For second and third graders.
• A quiz about Apatosaurus - Unscramble the answers and see how much you know this long-necked dinosaur! For grades 2-3.