Meaning:

means deceptive dinosaur

Size:

up to 25 metres long, 4 metres high

Weight:

up to 35 000 kg

Diet:

plants (herbivorous)

When:

150 million years ago (Upper Jurassic)

Where:

North America

• May have slept while standing upright
• Stomach stones (gastroliths) crushed poorly-chewed food
• Long neck not very flexible, head held low
• Ate constantly to maintain huge body size
• Probably lived in herds
• Whip-like tip on tail may have made ‘cracking’ sound
• Brain as small as a computer mouse
• A second Apatosaurus skeleton was mistakenly identified as a new dinosaur (called Brontosaurus) but was found out to be the same, so the name "Brontosaurus" is no longer used