Camarasaurus Dinosaur Bone, from Morrison Formation, Muffat County, Colorado, U.S.A. (REF:CDB14)

Camarasaurus is an extinct species of sauropod dinosaur found in North America.

These Jurassic herbivorous dinosaurs lived between 155-145 million years ago and could between 7.5-25 meters long in length, weighing up to 23000kg (25.4 tons). Camarasaurus was one the most common herbivore dinosaurs to roam the Late Jurassic plains of western U.S.A with groups of fossils having been found that suggest it roamed in herds.

Gastroliths - stones swallowed and held in the gut to help digestion, haven’t been found with Camarasaurus fossil finds and its teeth were stronger than most sauropods, which suggests that it could eat tougher vegetation, chewing it up rather than gulping it down whole.

‘Camara’ in Camarasaurus comes from the Greek for ‘chamber’ and refers to the chambers that American palaeontologist Edward Drinker Cope found in the dinosaurs’s vertebrae. This reduced the weight of the Camarasaurus frame, later found common in other sauropods.