Fossil Field Guide Part 3

Fossil Field Guide

Part 3

Indy Anna Bones wants to clear up misconceptions about some of her favorite dinosaurs.

Apatosaurus is one of the most famous dinosaurs, but very few people know that name.

The headless skeleton of Brontosaurus was later reclassified as Apatosaurus, a sauropod that had already been described, but it was the new, obsolete name that would survive in popular culture for more than a century.

Sauropods are a diverse group of “lizard-hipped” dinosaurs that lived through all three ages of the dinosaurs and have been uncovered on every continent, including Antarctica.

The most notable feature of the sauropods are their large bodies, tiny heads, incredibly long tails and necks.

From the Triassic to the Cretaceous, sauropods grew larger and larger until the Titanosaurs stretched up to 130 feet from nose to tail, the largest animals that ever walked the Earth.

On the subject of dinosaurs that don’t exist, meet Trachodon, the duck-billed dinosaur.

Originally named for its double-rooted teeth, the name Trachodon is now largely out of vogue with scientists.

The animals known as ‘Trachodon’ are now considered to be a part of the hadrosaur family beside crested dinosaurs like Parasaurolophus.

The most important Trachodon specimen is the “mummy,” a nearly complete Edmontosaurus skeleton frozen in a 3-dimensional, death-like position with fossilized impressions of muscle and skin preserved around the bones.

Stegosaurus is a dinosaur that definitely exists, with a number of recovered skeletons confirming this animal’s anatomy.

What is untrue about Stegosaurus is the popular notion that it was a dinosaur so stupid it needed a second brain.

For many years it was believed that Stegosaurus used another brain in their hips to coordinate movement off the back legs and deadly spiked tail.

Today science believes the enlarged spinal cavities most likely contained an energy-rich glycogen sac, much like birds of today keep in their hips.

The purpose of the sac is unknown in both birds and Stegosaurus.

Indy Anna Bones had one last stop to make on her prehistoric journey, so she bid farewell to Stegosaurus, and got back on the road to adventure.

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