Camarasaurus

Although not as famous as some sauropods like Apatosaurus and Diplodocus,‭ ‬Camarasaurus actually appears to have been the most common judging by the large numbers of remains.‭ ‬Some Camarasaurus specimens are actually almost complete and the genus also has one of the largest numbers of sauropod skulls attributed‭ (‬for those who haven’t realised the skull you see rotating at the top of every web page on this site is actually a replica of a Camarasaurus skull‭)‬.

Camarasaurus was named in‭ ‬1877‭ ‬after Edward Drinker Cope bought the first fossils from Oramel W.‭ ‬Lucas.‭ ‬These remains were of an‭ ‬incomplete individual but were still valuable to Cope because the vertebrae had hollow chambers,‭ ‬something that gave rise to the name of‭ ‘‬chambered lizard‭’‬.‭ ‬Back then these chambers were more a curiosity and were presumed to have been a weight saving feature that considerably reduced the weight of such a large dinosaur.‭ ‬Today however these chambers are interpreted as being air sacs that were actually part of the respiratory system of Camarasaurus.‭ ‬These features are seen in other sauropods,‭ ‬as well as similar systems in other dinosaur groups such as in the theropod Aerosteon,‭ ‬and would go to be called an avian-like respiratory system as birds also have‭ ‬similar‭ ‬air sacs inside their bodies.‭ ‬Back to Camarasaurus,‭ ‬the air sacs are thought to have allowed for a far more efficient flow of air down the long neck so that fresh air went down one network of sacs,‭ ‬while oxygen depleted air went up another.‭ ‬Thus a constant supply and exchange of breathable air was still taking place despite the distance of the lungs from the mouth and nostrils.

In‭ ‬1925‭ ‬Charles W.‭ ‬Gilmore retrieved a much better Camarasaurus specimen which was for lack of a better word complete.‭ ‬The main reason why it was so well preserved is because it was a younger and not fully grown individual,‭ ‬which meant that the body was probably buried before scavengers and environmental conditions could scatter and damage the skeleton.‭ ‬Unfortunately some took this specimen to be the literal size of all Camarasaurus,‭ ‬something which resulted in many Camarasaurus reconstructions being smaller than they really were in life.‭