APATOSAURUS
(ah-PAT-oh-sawr-us)
Apatosaurus lived about
150 million years ago. It was originally called Brontosaurus which means
"Thunder Lizard." The name probably came from the thunderous noise made
when it walked. Being a large, slow moving plant-eater with small, peg-like
teeth, it was easy prey for meat-eating predators. Apatosaurus’ only defense
against enemies was its 20 foot long tail that could be used as a whip
for protection.
Apatosaurus measured
up to 70 feet long from head to tail. Its neck was 20 foot long, which
enabled it to reach the leaves of some of the tallest trees. This means
that Apatosaurus was longer than a humpback whale and its neck was longer
than a giraffe is tall. It weighed as much as 30 tons which is equal to
about 5 elephants.
It is estimated that
Apatosaurus ate as much as 1,000 pounds of leaves a day to survive. Now
that’s a lot of vegetables!
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