Amphicoelias

Amphicoelias is a genus of herbivorous sauropod dinosaur that lived approximately 150 million years ago during the Tithonian of what is now Colorado, United States. Amphicoelias was moderately sized at about 18 metres (59 ft) in length and 15 metric tons in body mass, shorter than its close relative Diplodocus. Its hindlimbs were very long and thin, and its forelimbs were proportionally longer than in relatives.

A picture published with the record for Amphicoelias.

Philip D. Mannion, Emanuel Tschopp and John A. Whitlock · CC BY 4.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
DiplodocoideaPBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB, for Sauropoda
Life habit
ground dwelling, gregariousPBDB, for Sauropoda
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Sauropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Sauropoda

Time the record covers

At least 3 million years on record.

The record covers at least 152.21 Mya to 149.2 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 157.9 Mya to 143.1 Mya.

Late Jurassic — about 3 of 3 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 0 of 3 occurrences158–158 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences158–157 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences157–157 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences157–156 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences156–156 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences156–155 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences155–155 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences155–154 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences154–154 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences154–153 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences153–153 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences153–152 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences149–149 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences149–148 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences148–148 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences148–147 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences147–147 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences147–146 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences146–146 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences146–145 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences145–145 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences145–144 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences144–144 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences144–143 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences143–143 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences152.21 Mya149.2 Mya158.4 Mya142.6 Mya

3 occurrences of Amphicoelias on record, most of them in the Late Jurassic. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

3 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

2 formations

Morrison — 38.55°N, 105.24°WMorrison — 44.05°N, 107.46°WKadzi — 16.26°S, 30.69°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Amphicoelias has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Amphicoelias and its relatives

Late Jurassic

Where Amphicoelias and its relatives were recorded in the Late Jurassic.

Found in the same rock

29 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 3 sites for Amphicoelias, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

3 references

Each of the 3 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Each entry links to the Paleobiology Database's own record for the work.

Media and terms

Media content3

Picture of Amphicoelias

Credit
Philip D. Mannion, Emanuel Tschopp and John A. Whitlock
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Structured light scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Amphicoelias altus · amnh:farb:5764

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itDiplodocoidea through timeFormations of the Late JurassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Cope 1877