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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