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Dinosaur Facts: “Shark-tooth Lizard” Carcharodontosaurus

Anatomy

Carcharodontosaurus was a huge meat eater from the Cretaceous period.  This North African carnosaur had a massive tail, a bulky body, and heavy bones.  Its arms were short and had three-fingered hands with sharp claws.

Carcharodontosaurus was from 26-44 feet long (8-14 m), perhaps weighing up to 8 tons.  It had a a skull that was as big as a person - 5′4″ (1.6 m).  It had large, powerful jaws with long, serrated, sharp teeth up to 8 inches long.  Although Carcharodontosaurus was larger than T. rex, its brain was smaller.  Carcharodontosaurus was closely related to Giganotosaurus but not to T. rex.  Carcharodontosaurus was a more primitive dinosaur than T. rex.

When Carcharodontosaurus lived
Carcharodontosaurus lived in the Cretaceous period, about 110 to 90 million years ago.

Behavior
Carcharodontosaurus may have hunted in groups like other Allosaurids but there is no fossil evidence of this.

Intelligence
Carcharodontosaurus was a carnosaur, whose intelligence (as measured by its relative brain to body weight, or EQ) was high among the dinosaurs.

Diet
Carcharodontosaurus was a carnivore, a meat eater.  It was a large, fierce predator that could kill even large sauropods.  Carcharodontosaurus may also have been a scavenger.

Locomotion
Carcharodontosaurus walked on two muscular legs and was a relatively fast runner.  Dinosaur speeds are estimated using their morphology (characteristics like leg length and estimated body mass) and fossilized trackways.

Discovery of fossils
Carcharodontosaurus was first known from an incomplete North African skull and a few bones found by Depret and Savornin in 1927 (originally called  Megalosaurus saharicus). Ernst Stromer von Reichenbach named it in 1931.  These fossils were destroyed during World War II (in 1944).  In 1996, Paul Sereno and his team found another Carcharodontosaurus in North Africa, even larger than the older specimen.

Classification
Carcharodontosaurus was a late Jurassic Saurischian (”lizard-hipped”) dinosaur.  It was a theropod, a carnosaur, an allosaurid (huge carnivores with bony head ridges that may have hunted in packs; they included Yangchuanosaurus and others), and a member of the Carcharodontosauridae (which included Carcharodontosaurus, Bahariasaurus, and Giganotosaurus).

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
Suborder Theropoda - bipedal carnivores
Tetanura - advanced theropods with three fingers
Superfamily Carnosauria - allosaurids and their relatives
Family Allosauridae
Genus Carcharodontosaurus
Species C. saharicus (type species: Stromer, 1931)

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Dinosaur Facts: “Bent Lizard” Camptosaurus

Anatomy

Camptosaurus (meaning “bent lizard”) was a plant-eater from the late Jurassic period (about 156 to 145 million years ago) that looked a lot like Iguanodon. It was a heavy ornithischian dinosaur that was about 16-23 feet (5-7 m) long and 3-4 feet (1 m) high at the hips, weighing roughly 2,200 pounds (1000 kg). It had a long snout, hundreds of teeth and a horny beak. Its legs were longer than its arms; it had four-toed feet and five-fingered arms, all with hooves. It could walk on two or four legs, it probably went on all four to graze for low-lying plants.

When Camptosaurus lived
Camptosaurus lived in the late Jurassic period, about 156-145 million years ago.

Behavior
Camptosaurus may have lived in herds.

Intelligence
Camptosaurus was an ornithopod, whose intelligence (as measured by its relative brain to body weight, or EQ) was midway among the dinosaurs.

Diet
Camptosaurus was an herbivore, a plant eater. It probably nipped cycads and other prehistoric plants with its tough, toothed beak. It had no teeth in the front of its mouth, but had strong teeth in the side of its jaw (cheek teeth) to grind the plant material.

Locomotion
Camptosaurus could walk on two or four legs.

Discovery of fossils
Camptosaurus fossils have been found in North American and Europe. It was first found in Utah, USA by the dinosaur collector Earl Douglass and named by paleontologist Othniel C. Marsh in 1885. Many fossils of Camptosaurus have been found, in different stages of development.

Classification
Camptosaurus 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 Ornithischia - bird-hipped, herbivorous dinosaurs
Suborder Ornithopoda - bird-footed, beaked, bipedal, herbivorous dinosaurs
Family Iguanodontidae - the family of large, bipedal, long-toed herbivores with thumb spikes, that included Ouranosaurus, Probactrosaurus, and others.
Genus Camptosaurus
species: The type species is C. dispar (Marsh, 1879). Other Camptosaurus species include: C. depressus (Gilmore, 1909), C. leedsi (Lydekker, 1889, dubious), C. prestwichii (Hulke, 1880).

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Dinosaur Facts: “Chambered Lizard” Camarasaurus

Anatomy
Camarasaurus was a long-necked, long-tailed giant herbivore, measuring about 24 to 65 feet (7.5 to 20 m) long 15 feet (4.6 m) tall at the hips, and weighing up to 20 tons (roughly 28000 kg). It was much smaller than its fellow sauropods. It had a small, long head with a blunt snout and spoon-shaped teeth. Its neck and tail were shorter than most other sauropods. It had thick legs with five-toed feet; the inner toe had a long, sharp claw for protection. The front legs were only a bit shorter than its back legs, making its back almost level to the ground. Its name, “chambered lizard,” comes from the holes in its vertebrae that decrease its weight.

When Camarasaurus lived
Camarasaurus lived during the late Jurassic Period, about 155 to 145 million years ago. The late Jurassic was the time of the enormous sauropods, including Diplodocus, Apatosaurus, and Brachiosaurus. Also present were Stegosaurus, Tuojiangosaurus, Allosaurus, Supersaurus, Coelurosaur, and many others.

Behavior
Camarasaurus fossils have been found in groups with both adult and young together. This suggests that Camarasaurus travelled in herds and may have cared for their young. Camarasaurus may have hatched from eggs, like other sauropods. Sauropod eggs have been found in a linear pattern and not in nests; presumably the eggs were laid as the animal was walking. It is thought that sauropods did not take care of their eggs. Sauropods life spans may have been in the order of 100 years.

Diet and teeth
Camarasaurus was an herbivore (it ate only plants). It must have eaten a tremendous amount of plant material each day to sustain itself. It swallowed leaves whole, without chewing them, and may have swallowed gastroliths (gizzard stones) to help digest tough plant fibers, like fern leaves  and conifers . It had long, thick, spoon-shaped teeth.

Intelligence
It used to be thought that the sauropods (like Camarasaurus, Brachiosaurus and Apatosaurus) and Stegosaurus had a second brain. Paleontologists now think that what they thought was a second brain was just an enlargement in the spinal cord in the hip area. This enlargement was larger than the animal’s tiny brain.

Camarasaurus was a sauropod, whose intelligence (as measured by its relative brain to body weight, or EQ) was the among the lowest of the dinosaurs.

Locomotion
Camarasaurus probably moved slowly on four massive legs (as determined from fossilized tracks and its leg length and estimated mass).

Fossils
Many Camarasaurus fossils have been found in North America (in Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming). Camarasaurus was named in 1877 by Edward Drinker Cope.

Classification
Camarasaurus was a saurischian dinosaur, a sauropodomorpha, and one of the smallest of the sauropoda (long-necked, long-tailed plant-eaters). It belongs to the Family Camarasauridae, boxy-headed sauropods, which includes Camarasaurus, Euhelopus, Opistocoelicaudia, etc.

The type species is C. supremus. Other species of Camarasaurus include: C. grandis, C. lentus, and C. lewisi.

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Dinosaur Facts: “Arm Lizard” Brachiosaurus

Anatomy
Brachiosaurus was one of the tallest and largest dinosaurs yet found.  It had a long neck, small head, and relatively short, thick tail.

Brachiosaurus walked on four legs and, like the other Brachiosaurids and unlike most dinosaurs, its front legs were longer than its hind legs.  These unusual front legs together with its very long neck gave Brachiosaurus a giraffe-like stance and great height, up to 40-50 feet (12-16 m) tall.

Brachiosaurus was about 85 feet (26 m) long, and weighed about 33-88 tons (30-80 tonnes).  It had a claw on the first toe of each front foot and claws on the first three toes of each rear foot (each foot had five toes with fleshy pads).

Like other Brachiosaurids, it had chisel-like teeth, its nostrils were on the top of its head, and it had large nasal openings indicating that it may have had a good sense of smell.  Brachiosaurus had 26 teeth on its top jaw and 26 on the bottom for a total of 52 teeth towards the front of the mouth.

Diet
Brachiosaurus was an herbivore, a plant eater.  It probably ate the tops of tall trees with its large spatulate (chisel-shaped) teeth.  It swallowed its food whole, without chewing it, digesting the plant material in its gut.

Whn Brachiosaurus lived
Brachiosaurus lived in the middle to late Jurassic period, about 156-145 million years ago, near the middle of the Mesozoic Era, the Age of Reptiles.  Some dating estimates have Brachiosaurus surviving until 140 million years ago, during the dawn of the Cretaceous period.

Among the contemporaries of Brachiosaurus were other giant Sauropods including Camarasaurus, Supersaurus, Ultrasauros, and Haplocanthosaurus.

Habitat
Brachiosaurus was a terrestrial animal.  It was assumed for many years that giant sauropods spent most of their time in water, letting the water support their weighty bodies while breathing through their lofty nostrils.  Now it is believed that they were fully terrestrial, just as Elmer S. Riggs, who first described  Brachiosaurus, argued in a 1904 article.  He believed, as most modern scientists do, that Brachiosaurus’ feet and limbs were not broad enough to support the heavy animal in mud, that its back was flexible enough to support it on land, and that its chest was narrow and deep, which is insufficient for breathing underwater, and inconsistent with modern-day water-dwelling large animals (like hippos).

Possible predators
A healthy, adult Brachiosaurus probably had no predators.  The largest-known meat-eaters from that time (the late Jurassic period) and place (North America and Africa) were Allosaurus, Ceratosaurus, and Torvosaurus.  These theropods were less than half the size of Brachiosaurus, and probably had much easier prey to hunt (like smaller sauropods and ornithischians like stegosaurs).

Blood pressure problems
Brachiosaurus and some of the other large sauropods (the huge long-necked plant-eaters) needed to have large, powerful hearts and very high blood pressure in order to pump blood up the long neck to the head and brain.  The heads (and brains) of Brachiosaurus was held high (many meters) above its heart.  This presents a problem in blood-flow engineering.  In order to pump enough oxygenated blood to the head to operate Brachiosaurus’ brain (even its tiny sauropod brain) would require a large, powerful heart, tremendously high blood pressure, and wide, muscular blood vessels with many valves (to prevent the back-flow of blood).  Brachiosaurus’ blood pressure was probably over 400 mm Mercury, three or four times as high as ours.

Behavior

Herds: Brachiosaurus probably travelled in herds and may have migrated when they depleted their local food supply.
Eggs: Brachiosaurus may have hatched from eggs, like other sauropods.  Sauropod eggs have been found in a linear pattern and not in nests; presumably the eggs were laid as the animal was walking.  It is thought that sauropods did not take care of their eggs.
Life Span: Sauropod life spans may have been in the order of 100 years.
Defense: Brachiosaurus’ best defense was size.  In addition, its long tail could whip away most attackers.  Also, they had leathery skin, although this wasn’t much of a defense against long, sharp theropod teeth.  They also had clawed feet that were more pronounced in the young.

Intelligence
It used to be thought that the sauropods (like Brachiosaurus and Apatosaurus) and Stegosaurus had a second brain.  Paleontologists now think that what they thought was a second brain was just an enlargement in the spinal cord in the hip area.  This enlargement was larger than the animal’s tiny brain.

Brachiosaurus was a sauropod, whose intelligence (as measured by its relative brain to body weight, or EQ) was the among the lowest of the dinosaurs.

Locomotion
Brachiosaurus was quadrupedal, walking on four legs.  Unlike most other dinosaurs, the front legs were longer than the hind legs.

Discovery of fossils
Brachiosaurus was first found in the Grand River Valley, in western Colorado, USA, in 1900.  This incomplete skeleton was described by paleontologist Elmer S. Riggs, who named Brachiosaurus in 1903.  In 1909, Werner Janensch found many Brachiosaurus fossils in Tanzania, Africa.    Many Brachiosaurus fossils have been found, in North America and  Africa.

Classification
Brachiosaurus  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 - very large herbivores
Neosauropoda - advanced sauropods
Family Brachiosaurid -  nasal crests on the top of the head and for most, the front legs were longer than their rear legs, giving them a giraffe-like stance
Subfamily Brachiosaurinae - the largest land animals which included Brachiosaurus, Ultrasauros, Seismosaurus, and others
Genus Brachiosaurus -
Species - the type species is B. altithorax (Riggs, 1903).  Other species include: B. atalaiensis (de Lapparent & Zbyszewski, 1957), B. brancai (Janensch, 1914)

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