The Dinosaur Quarry. Dinosaur National Monument, Colorado-UtahGood, John M. (John Maxwell)
History
The Dinosaur Quarry. Dinosaur National Monument, Colorado-Utah
Good, John M. (John Maxwell)
Dinosaur National Monument (Colo. and Utah); Dinosaurs; Paleontology -- Jurassic
The important structural difference in dinosaurs is found in the pelvis.
In all land vertebrates, the pelvis is made up of three pairs of bones
called the ilium, pubis, and ischium. The paired ilium is joined to each
side of the backbone and projects downward to meet the pubis and ischium
at the socket for the head of the thigh bone. The pubis forms the front
third and the ischium the rear third of this socket. In the order
_Saurischia_ the bones of the pelvis are arranged as in most reptiles
and mammals. In the order _Ornithischia_ the pubis extends backward
along the ischium as it does in the birds.
Two types of saurischian dinosaurs are found in the quarry.
_Antrodemus_, a flesh-eating type, was about the size of a horse, but
was two-footed. It had strong sharp claws on its feet. Its teeth were
about 2 inches long, flattened from side to side and with fine
serrations on front and back edges. Actually it is not known whether
_Antrodemus_ overpowered and killed the large swamp-living dinosaurs, or
merely fed on their carcasses after they had died from other causes.
However, there has been found in the quarries at Como, Wyo., a partial
skeleton of _Apatosaurus_ with grooves on the bones which suggest tooth
marks. The spacing of these grooves fit the spacing of the teeth of a
specimen of _Antrodemus_ found in the same quarry.
[Illustration: A. ORNITHISCHIAN PELVIS. B. SAURISCHIAN PELVIS.
KEY: IL—ILLIUM; IS—ISCHIUM; P—PUBIS.]
The plant-eating dinosaurs of the order _Saurischia_ which are found in
the quarry were all four-footed. They had bodies about the size of an
elephant or larger. The principal differences between the flesh- and
plant-eating dinosaurs were the length of the neck and tail, the details
of their skull structure, and other parts of their skeleton.
_Apatosaurus_ is perhaps the most familiar dinosaur to most of us. Its
hind legs were much longer than its front ones and gave the animal a
high-hipped, stooped appearance. _Apatosaurus_ was about 70 feet long
and probably weighed close to 40 tons. _Diplodocus_ was longer (one of
them 75½ feet) but was slender and lightly built. Its neck was longer
and it had a whiplash tail that looked much like the tail of the modern
whiptailed lizard. _Diplodocus_ also had long pencil-like teeth
different from those of any other known dinosaur. _Barosaurus_ has an
extremely long neck with long individual neck bones. Two members of the
genus _Camarasaurus_ are similar to each other except for size; one was
small, but the other was as large as _Apatosaurus_. _Camarasaurus_ had
longer front legs than _Apatosaurus_ and was generally better
proportioned.
[Illustration: _Antrodemus_, THE FEROCIOUS CARNIVORE OF MORRISON
TIME. (FROM A DRAWING BY CHARLES R. KNIGHT. COURTESY, AMERICAN
MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY.)]
[Illustration: THE GREAT SAURISCHIAN PLANT-EATER _Apatosaurus
louisae_—ABOUT 70 FEET LONG. (FROM A DRAWING BY A. AVINOFF, CARNEGIE
MUSEUM.)]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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