Apatosaurus Marsh, 1877
Apatosaurus Marsh, 1877
(Amer. J. Sci., (3) 14, 514.
NcZ) "deceptive (chevron) lizard"
a-PAT-o-SAWR-us (t.L.m.: AP-a-to-SAWR-us)
(Gr. apatao "deceive" + Gr. sauros "lizard")* (m)
alluding to the Y-shaped chevrons (or hemal arches) on the underside of the tail,
which Marsh thought were deceptively like those found in some mosasaurs
(Tylosaurus, Platcarpus, etc.) in which the chevrons were not fused to the centra
of the vertebrae: "The chevron bones differ from those of most known Dinosaurs in having
the superior articular ends of the rami not united, but separated from each other,
as in the Mosasauria with free haemapophyses." The specimen had not been prepared
when Marsh published the name and description, and his quick-and-dirty comparison
with mosasaurs now seems odd and obscure--chevrons at the near-end of the tail
in Apatosaurus were bridged at the top to form a compressed triangle on a stem,
perforated by a hemal canal, as in many other dinosaurs, while some mosasaurs
(Mosasaurus, Clidastes, etc.) had chevrons fused directly to the centra
of the caudal vertebrae, unlike in Apatosaurus. (See additional comments at
Brontosaurus Marsh, 1879.)
(Apatosaurus does not mean "headless lizard.")
Sauropoda Diplodocidae L. Jur. NA.
Apatosaurus достигал длины 28 метров (Зденек Буриан).
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