Alamosaurus

AL-uh-a-mo-SAWR-us

Kevin, with dinosaur for scale by jumpingspider on Flickr

Learn Before You Go

Scientific Name: Alamosaurus
Pronunciation: AL-uh-a-mo-SAWR-us
Name Means: Alamo lizard (first fossil was found in the Ojo Alamo geologic formation)
Diet: Herbivore
Fossils Found: Throughout the southwest US including New Mexico, Texas, and Utah (It's one of the most commonly found fossils, but no skull (only teeth) has been found yet.)
Wikipedia: Alamosaurus

A Mammoth of a Jigsaw Puzzle

The Alamosaurus sculpture is almost 65 feet long. It had to be shipped in over a dozen pieces from the company in Canada where it was made and then reassembled onsite before the trail opened to the public.

The Alamosaurus is a sauropod. Sauropods are the largest land animals that ever lived. And since there is no living animal built the same way, there's a lot we are still trying to learn about how they lived. The Brontosaurus sculpture on our old trail is also a sauropod, although that name is no longer used. Brontosaurus is now referred to as an Apatosaurus.

This image is a section through the bony socket of a ball-and-socket joint at the end of one of the presacral vertebra of an Alamosaurus. --Sauropod Vertebra Picture of the Week

How Did They Eat?

To be that big and be plant-eaters, sauropods had to have been able to consume vast quantities in short periods of time, and it is thought they did so by not chewing their food.

How Did They Hold Their Necks?

Sauropods would likely have been able to lift their heads high, but it is improbable that would have been their resting position. With their necks in the horizontal position, like the Alamosaurus is shown in the exhibit, they would have been able to move their head from side to side enough to reach plenty of food as well.