Outline: a typical sauropod
Haplocanthosaurus
HAP-loh-KAN-thoh-SORE-us
"simple spined lizard"
Type species Haplocanthosaurus priscus
- Lived
- 155 to 143 million years ago, Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous
- Diet
- Herbivore
- Length
- about 22 m (71 ft)
- Group
- Sauropods
- Found in
- United States
- Named by
- Hatcher 1903
Size comparison
To scale
Scale in metersOutline: typical sauropod shape
Where its fossils were found
The evidence
Today
150 million years ago
Field notes
About Haplocanthosaurus
What it was like
Haplocanthosaurus was a long-necked, four-legged plant eater, smaller than the giants it lived with. Its name comes from the tall, simple spines on its backbones. Many of its neighbors had forked spines instead.
Scientists still debate where it fits among the sauropods, though most studies place it near the base of the group that includes Diplodocus.
Its world
It lived about 155 million years ago, in the Late Jurassic, in what is now Colorado, Utah and Wyoming in the United States. Its bones come from the lowest layers of the Morrison Formation, where it lived alongside Brontosaurus, Stegosaurus and the hunter Allosaurus.
How it was found
Hatcher named Haplocanthosaurus in 1903. Two species are known, both from partial skeletons, and seven finds in all.
Lived alongside
Found in the same rock formations
Close relatives
Other members of Diplodocoidea
Sources: WikidataNamed in: J. B. Hatcher. 1903. A new name for the dinosaur Haplocanthus Hatcher. Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 16:100