Apatosaurus

## General

* Alt
* JP Institute

Apatosaurus is one of the most famous of the giant Jurassic plant-eaters. It was a sauropod, a member of a race of huge, long-necked dinosaurs. It was longer than two school buses and weighed as much as 4 adult male African elephants. For years, an Apatosaurus body stood with the head of Camarasaurus on the end of its neck. This was named Brontosaurus and was one of the most popular dinosaurs for many years. In 2015, the Brontosaurus genus was revived and several species of Apatosaurus were resigned to the Brontosaurus genus.

Apatosaurus is a fairly typical member of the diplodocid family - long neck, pillar-like legs, long tapering tail and enormous size. It had, like the other family members, peg-like teeth in a head that seemed very small for such a large creature. Compared to Diplodocus, Apatosaurus has a shorter, thicker neck, and a larger, heavier body. There is much speculation about how much these creatures needed to eat and how such a small head could ingest enough food to fuel such a large body. Some scientists have stated that these huge, small-headed creatures would have needed to eat every waking moment in order to provide enough food to keep such a large body alive. Apatosaurus seemed to have every adaptation needed for continuous eating. Despite looking defenseless other than its huge size, the Apatosaurus tail was a formidable weapon: it was like a giant bullwhip, and could snap with enough force to shatter bones of attacking theropods like Allosaurus or Ceratosaurus. Timed well, it could kill a full grown Allosaurus outright with a blow to the head or cause severe injury after hitting the sides of the theropod.

In order to facilitate the processing of food, which it could not chew with its teeth. Apatosaurus probably swallowed stones that it kept in a gizzard similar to that found in a chicken. The tough plant fibers would spend time in the gizzard stewing and grinded up by the stones.

The Apatosaurus reaches full size in 10 years.

## Description

*Apatosaurus* are grey, with thin necks and relatively short tails compared to it's ancestors. It is also relatively small, being shorter than even the park's *Tyrannosaurus*. These changes make the dinosaur relatively defenseless compared to the prehistoric animal.

## Behavior

*Apatosaurus* are quite peaceful, preferring to browse with their herds. Unfortunately they are defenseless against most predators around their height.

## History

### Jurassic Park

*Apatosaurus* was a planned attraction for Jurassic Park, but only had 57% of it's genome complete before the 1993 Incident and Hurricane Clarissa forced Ingen to abandon the park.

### Jurassic World

*Apatosaurus* was later recreated for Jurassic World, where they lived in multiple exhibits, including Gyrosphere Valley and Cretaceous Cruise. During the 2015 Incident a herd was slaughtered by the *Indominus rex*, with one being comforted by Owen Grady and Claire Dearing as she died. Once the Incident forced the park to close the *Apatosaurus* were released into the wild.

### Post Jurassic World

The *Apatosaurus* populations have remained consistent throughout the three-year time span Isla Nublar was abandoned, but were later threatened when Mount Sibo showed signs of erupting. At least five were captured by Ken Wheatly's mercenary team and sent to the Lockwood Manor to be auctioned of. It is unknown if any were sold, but said five individuals were later freed into the wilds of California.

## References

<references>

1. ↑  What Killed the Gene Guard Act:http://www.dinosaurprotectiongroup.com/what-killed-the-gene-guard-act.html
2. ↑  Jurassic World
3. ↑  Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom