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WHAT'S IN A
NAME?
Barosaurus means "heavy lizard", and indeed, this is one of the largest
animals that has ever lived.
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SMILE!
Instead of a set of teeth, Barosaurus had a singular peg at the front of its
mouth which was used to rip leaves from trees. So, to aid digestion
Barosaurus would swallow stones to grind up the food in its stomach like
modern-day birds do.
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NUTS AND
BOLTS
The long neck of the Barosaurus was supported by very strong, but very
lightweight bones. It also contained powerful valves in its blood vessels to
ensure that enough blood could travel to its brain. It's long neck allowed
the Barosaurus to reach lush tree-tops with ease, and its huge barrel shaped
body could store food large amounts of food for days.
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OUT AND ABOUT
Barosaurus lived at a time when the climate was very warm with long wet and
dry seasons, therefore its life was one of constant movement in search of
fresh feeding grounds. From the amount of fossilised footprints, we know
that Barosaurus was a very social dinosaur, and lived in huge herds.
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FROM HEAD...
No complete skull of a Barosaurus has ever been found. But an impression of
what it probably looked like has been established by looking at the fossil
remains of similar dinosaurs related to Barosaurus.
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...TO TAIL
When under attack, Barosaurus would use its long powerful tail as a whip to
defend itself. It is also thought that the young Barosaurus would hide
underneath the larger adults when under threat like modern-day elephants do.
Patterns of smaller fossilised footprints tracks 'inside' the larger ones
supports this.
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