Apatosaurus (Deceptive lizard) is a very large North American dinosaur. It is an adoptable animal in Zoo Tycoon.
Description[]
Apatosaurus is a member of Sauropoda, a group of dinosaurs primarily recognized by their large size, long necks and long tails. Sauropods included the largest animals ever to walk on land; Apatosaurus itself was around 22.8m (75ft) long and weighed about 22.4 tonnes, but many close relatives were even larger. Like all sauropods, the long neck of Apatosaurus would have helped it to browse from a great distance. It was a generalist browser, preferring to feed from a lower elevation than other sauropods. Its long, whip-like tail was possibly used for defense against predators such as Allosaurus, and also helped counterbalance its long neck.
Apatosaurus lived during the Late Jurassic Period, with fossils being found across several regions of the United States of America. Studies of its footprints suggest it lived in large herds. To aid in processing food, Apatosaurus may have swallowed gizzard stones, known as gastroliths, the same way many birds do today.
Zoo Tycoon[]
Apatosaurus is an adoptable animal in Zoo Tycoon and was added as part of the Dinosaur Digs expansion pack. It must be researched in order to be adopted.
Apatosaurus is a Deciduous Forest animal. It requires a very large exhibit with a lot of trees, although it can be kept singularly. It is notably the only herbivorous dinosaur that will break out of any fence that is not electrified. The Apatosaurus' favourite foliage is the Glossopteris Tree, however they also like the Ginkgo and Magnolia Trees and get more habitat suitability from them.
 Animal Facts
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The Apatosaurus ("deceptive lizard"), a.k.a. the Brontosaurus, is one of the largest land animals to ever walk the earth. Adult specimens can grow up to 90 feet long and weigh 38 tons. Its tiny two-foot head has nostrils on the top, although it is not an aquatic dinosaur. The small jaw contains blunt teeth and thick lips for stripping foliage, which would then be swallowed whole. This small head is attached to a forty-foot long neck. A fifty-foot tail balances the weight of this long neck. Apatosaurus can use its tail as an extra leg to pull food towards itself while grazing. Apatosaurus walks on all four legs, the back two being slightly longer. All four legs have thick padded feet to support the Apatosaurus's enormous weight. Because of its small jaws and massive size, Apatosaurus has to spend most of its time eating. Its huge size limits its diet to ferns and conifers, cycads, club mosses, and the large stones it must swallow to digest all that food which it swallows whole. Most of these foods grow very close to the ground - the bones in the Apatosaurus's long neck don't allow them to raise their heads much higher than their backs. Instead, these animals tend to hold their heads close to the ground, swinging them in a left to right motions and stripping and swallowing plant life as they move. The physiology of the Apatosaurus also limits where it can live. Wet or swampy ground is dangerous for a 38-ton animal, which can sink easily in the right conditions. Thick forests don't allow enough range for its head-swinging method of food collection, so normal feeding ground for an Apatosaurus is dry ground covered in low growing foliage. Large predators like Tyrannosaurus Rex and Allosaurus will prey upon the Apatosaurus, despite the fact that the Apatosaurus is larger still. Since it is too heavy to run away, the Apatosaurus must attempt to fight off predators when attacked. The Apatosaurus can use its long flexible tail to trip or knock over predators, and its great height helps to keep its vulnerable head and neck out of the reach. To protect the young and the weak of the herd (the favorite victims of the large predators), the larger male animals will form a wall between the herd and the predator. This defense only works for large herds of Apatosaurus, however, and the huge bulk of food that each of these animals must ingest every day limits herd size. Despite their best efforts, these gentle giants frequently wind up as the main course of a predator's feast. |
Gallery[]
Image originally uploaded by: LapissedL4zuli7
Trivia[]
- Apatosaurus is one of only four animals introduced in Zoo Tycoon: Dinosaur Digs that won't kill any other animals, the others being the Giant Tortoise, Caudipteryx and Lambeosaurus. These four can only kill staff members if they escape their exhibit.
- Apatosaurus is the largest land-animal in the Zoo Tycoon series, although it is surpassed by the Lion's Mane Jelly and Sperm Whale in terms of length and weight respectively.
- Apatosaurus is referred to as Brontosaurus at the start of its Animal Facts. Apatosaurus and Brontosaurus were initially treated as separate genera, until studies suggested that Brontosaurus was simply a species of Apatosaurus (Apatosaurus excelsus). It wasn't until 2015, several years after Dinosaur Digs was released, that Brontosaurus was declared a valid genus again after further studies suggested it was different enough from the original Apatosaurus finds.
Inaccuracies[]
- Its status as a deciduous forest animal is incorrect, since deciduous, broad-leafed trees did not exist when Apatosaurus was alive. Coniferous forest would have been a more accurate biome.
- The animal's depiction is inaccurate. The neck is longer and slimmer than it actually was, its hind limbs are much further front on its body, its back is much more arched and taller than it was, and its feet bear large hoof-like claws on each toe (in reality they would have looked more like hooves with a single large claw).