Apatosaurinae

Apatosaurinae is a subfamily of diplodocid sauropods, an extinct group of large, quadrupedal dinosaurs, the other subfamily in Diplodocidae being Diplodocinae. Apatosaurines are distinguished by their more robust, stocky builds and shorter necks proportionally to the rest of their bodies. Several fairly complete specimens are known, giving a comprehensive view of apatosaurine anatomy.

Apatosaurinae

ScottRobertAnselmo · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
DiplodocidaePBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB, for Sauropoda
Life habit
ground dwelling, gregariousPBDB, for Sauropoda
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Sauropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Sauropoda

Time the record covers

At least 3 million years on record.

The record covers at least 152.21 Mya to 149.2 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 157.9 Mya to 143.1 Mya.

Late Jurassic — about 95 of 95 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 0 of 95 occurrences158–158 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences158–157 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences157–157 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences157–156 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences156–156 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences156–155 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences155–155 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences155–154 Mya — about 4 occurrences154–154 Mya — about 4 occurrences154–153 Mya — about 4 occurrences153–153 Mya — about 4 occurrences153–152 Mya — about 4 occurrences152–152 Mya — about 5 occurrences152–151 Mya — about 5 occurrences151–151 Mya — about 5 occurrences151–150 Mya — about 5 occurrences150–149 Mya — about 5 occurrences149–149 Mya — about 5 occurrences149–148 Mya — about 5 occurrences148–148 Mya — about 5 occurrences148–147 Mya — about 5 occurrences147–147 Mya — about 5 occurrences147–146 Mya — about 5 occurrences146–146 Mya — about 5 occurrences146–145 Mya — about 5 occurrences145–145 Mya — about 4 occurrences145–144 Mya — about 4 occurrences144–144 Mya — about 4 occurrences144–143 Mya — about 4 occurrences143–143 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences152.21 Mya149.2 Mya158.4 Mya142.6 Mya

95 occurrences of Apatosaurinae on record, most of them in the Late Jurassic. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

95 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

1 formation

Morrison — 39.65°N, 105.19°WMorrison — 42.02°N, 106.05°WMorrison — 43.38°N, 108.12°WMorrison — 40.44°N, 109.30°WMorrison — 39.13°N, 108.73°WMorrison — 36.21°N, 103.63°WMorrison — 38.45°N, 107.40°WMorrison — 38.54°N, 105.22°WMorrison — 41.88°N, 106.06°WMorrison — 41.91°N, 105.98°WMorrison — 39.24°N, 109.00°WMorrison — 44.65°N, 107.82°WMorrison — 38.58°N, 108.40°WMorrison — 36.90°N, 102.83°WMorrison — 36.93°N, 102.97°WMorrison — 41.97°N, 106.29°WMorrison — 38.54°N, 106.81°WMorrison — 44.47°N, 103.31°WMorrison — 44.53°N, 103.83°WMorrison — 42.15°N, 105.91°WMorrison — 41.92°N, 106.36°WMorrison — 42.04°N, 106.39°WMorrison — 42.15°N, 105.89°WMorrison — 44.09°N, 106.78°WMorrison — 42.18°N, 106.32°WMorrison — 38.25°N, 110.81°WMorrison — 43.62°N, 108.18°WMorrison — 44.54°N, 107.78°WMorrison — 36.10°N, 110.23°WMorrison — 38.85°N, 108.48°WMorrison — 39.15°N, 108.77°WMorrison — 44.05°N, 107.46°WMorrison — 39.32°N, 110.69°WMorrison — 38.71°N, 109.74°WMorrison — 40.41°N, 109.22°WMorrison — 44.09°N, 106.87°WMorrison — 37.53°N, 103.68°WMorrison — 41.73°N, 106.27°WMorrison — 45.54°N, 110.62°WMorrison — 38.92°N, 109.94°WMorrison — 39.14°N, 109.02°WMorrison — 41.31°N, 105.71°WMorrison — 44.06°N, 106.72°WMorrison — 39.01°N, 111.02°WMorrison — 44.84°N, 111.73°WMorrison — 38.78°N, 109.72°WMorrison — 35.34°N, 107.81°WMorrison — 44.66°N, 107.85°WMorrison — 46.20°N, 111.41°WMorrison — 37.40°N, 108.92°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Apatosaurinae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Apatosaurinae and its relatives

Late Jurassic

Where Apatosaurinae and its relatives were recorded in the Late Jurassic.

Found in the same rock

198 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 85 sites for Apatosaurinae, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

46 references

Each of the 95 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 34 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Apatosaurinae

Credit
ScottRobertAnselmo
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Apatosaurinae was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itDiplodocidae through timeFormations of the Late JurassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Janensch 1929)