Camarasauridae

Camarasauridae is a family of sauropod dinosaurs. Among sauropods, camarasaurids are small to medium-sized, with relatively short necks. They are visually identifiable by a short skull with large nares, and broad, spatulate teeth filling a thick jaw. Based on cervical vertebrae and cervical rib biomechanics, camarasaurids most likely moved their necks in a vertical, rather than horizontal, sweeping motion, in contrast to most diplodocids.

Camarasauridae

James St. John · CC BY 2.0 · 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
Also called
camarasauridPBDB
Sits inside
CamarasauromorphaPBDB
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 89 million years on record.

The record covers at least 161.5 Mya to 72.2 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 165.3 Mya to 66 Mya.

Middle Jurassic — about 2 of 162 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 150 of 162 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 9 of 162 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 1 of 162 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 162 occurrences167–164 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences164–160 Mya — about 1 occurrence160–157 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences157–154 Mya — about 14 occurrences154–150 Mya — about 43 occurrences150–147 Mya — about 49 occurrences147–143 Mya — about 43 occurrences143–140 Mya — about 2 occurrences140–136 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences136–133 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences133–129 Mya — about 2 occurrences129–126 Mya — about 2 occurrences126–123 Mya — about 2 occurrences123–119 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences119–116 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences116–112 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences112–109 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences109–105 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences105–102 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences102–98 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences74–71 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences71–67 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences67–64 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences161.5 Mya72.2 Mya167 Mya64 Mya

162 occurrences of Camarasauridae 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

162 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

16 formations

Morrison — 39.07°N, 108.70°WMorrison — 42.04°N, 106.39°WMorrison — 42.02°N, 106.05°WMorrison — 43.38°N, 108.12°WMorrison — 43.63°N, 108.20°WMorrison — 40.44°N, 109.30°WMorrison — 38.81°N, 108.39°WMorrison — 41.91°N, 105.96°WMorrison — 41.88°N, 106.08°WMorrison — 39.24°N, 109.00°WMorrison — 44.54°N, 107.78°WMorrison — 44.65°N, 107.82°WMorrison — 41.97°N, 106.29°WMorrison — 38.73°N, 111.27°WMorrison — 38.55°N, 105.23°WMorrison — 38.58°N, 108.40°WMorrison — 36.93°N, 102.97°WMorrison — 39.01°N, 110.37°WMorrison — 44.53°N, 103.83°WMorrison — 43.41°N, 103.41°WMorrison — 44.46°N, 104.73°WMorrison — 35.32°N, 106.31°WMorrison — 42.15°N, 105.91°WMorrison — 39.17°N, 108.77°WMorrison — 44.18°N, 103.34°WMorrison — 45.45°N, 108.10°WMorrison — 35.20°N, 107.13°WMorrison — 40.50°N, 109.17°WMorrison — 44.02°N, 104.24°WMorrison — 44.84°N, 109.21°WMorrison — 43.65°N, 106.78°WMorrison — 44.09°N, 106.78°WMorrison — 44.68°N, 104.61°WMorrison — 38.71°N, 109.74°WMorrison — 38.92°N, 109.94°WMorrison — 41.98°N, 106.15°WMorrison — 44.63°N, 107.81°WMorrison — 39.68°N, 105.19°WMorrison — 35.52°N, 106.82°WMorrison — 37.31°N, 103.52°WMorrison — 38.85°N, 108.46°WMorrison — 39.15°N, 108.77°WMorrison — 39.32°N, 110.69°WMorrison — 38.38°N, 109.34°WMorrison — 44.05°N, 107.46°WMorrison — 44.47°N, 103.31°WMorrison — 40.46°N, 108.39°WMorrison — 38.25°N, 110.81°WMorrison — 38.45°N, 107.40°WMorrison — 40.41°N, 109.22°WMorrison — 44.09°N, 106.87°WMorrison — 37.53°N, 103.68°WMorrison — 37.47°N, 109.47°WMorrison — 40.49°N, 105.21°WMorrison — 45.54°N, 110.62°WMorrison — 39.01°N, 111.02°WMorrison — 38.55°N, 105.24°WMorrison — 44.06°N, 106.72°WMorrison — 42.52°N, 106.74°WMorrison — 44.66°N, 107.85°WLourinhã — 39.04°N, 9.01°WLourinhã — 39.22°N, 9.34°WLourinhã — 39.55°N, 8.98°WLourinhã — 39.45°N, 9.21°WLourinhã — 39.28°N, 9.33°WEl Castellar — 40.66°N, 0.87°WEl Castellar — 40.62°N, 0.84°WKadzi — 16.27°S, 30.80°EKadzi — 16.26°S, 30.69°EAlcobaça — 39.66°N, 8.58°WBalabansai — 41.33°N, 72.25°ELianmuqin — 46.04°N, 85.79°EHasandong — 35.19°N, 128.08°EBalabansai — 40.23°N, 70.90°ECamarillas — 40.65°N, 0.88°WVillar del Arzobispo — 40.66°N, 0.88°WBückeberg — 52.27°N, 9.99°ESüntel — 52.29°N, 8.71°EKallamedu — 11.19°N, 79.13°ETereñes — 43.55°N, 5.40°WVega — 43.55°N, 5.40°W

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The named rock units Camarasauridae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 4 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Camarasauridae and its relatives

Late Jurassic

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

Found in the same rock

398 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 146 sites for Camarasauridae, 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

90 references

Each of the 162 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. 78 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Camarasauridae

Credit
James St. John
Licence
CC BY 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.

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 itCamarasauromorpha through timeFormations of the Late JurassicThe world it lived on

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