Camarasaurus: A Heavyweight of the Jurassic

Artist impression of a Camarasaurus

If you think all long-necked dinosaurs were basically the same, meet Camarasaurus. Living around 150 million years ago, this enormous plant-eater roamed what is now western North America, particularly across the ancient landscapes preserved in the Morrison Formation. It could grow to around 50 feet long, although that actually made it a fairly middle-sized sauropod compared with some of the giants living alongside it.

Camarasaurus was a sauropod, the famous group of long-necked, four-legged, plant-eating dinosaurs that included giants such as Apatosaurus and Diplodocus. It had a bulky body, powerful legs, a long neck and a relatively short tail compared with some of its more extreme relatives.

And this wasn't some delicate leaf-eater either.

Camarasaurus had a much more robust build than many people might expect from a sauropod. Its skull was large and boxy, and its teeth were particularly interesting. Instead of having tiny, peg-like teeth, Camarasaurus had strong, spoon-shaped teeth that were well suited to biting and crushing tougher vegetation.

Finding dinosaur teeth is incredibly useful because teeth can tell us a lot about diet. Because the Camarasaurus teeth were relatively thick and spoon-shaped, they were built for dealing with tougher plant material rather than simply snipping soft leaves, most sauropods had small rounded teeth suited for leaves which makes this fascinating dinosaur different to the norm.

Camarasaurus is one of those dinosaurs that has given palaeontologists an incredible amount of material to work with. Its fossils are particularly common in the Morrison Formation, a huge stretch of Late Jurassic rocks covering much of the western United States. Fossils have been found from places including Utah, Wyoming and Montana, with Camarasaurus represented at numerous localities across the formation.

One of the most famous places to find Camarasaurus is Utah, where the historic Carnegie Quarry produced an astonishing collection of fossils. Six Camarasaurus skulls and three nearly complete skeletons have been discovered there, including a spectacular juvenile specimen.

It was one of the most successful and well-preserved giants of the Jurassic and thanks to its remarkable fossil record, it is one of the dinosaurs that lets us come surprisingly close to seeing what that lost world was really like.