Camptosaurus
Name:
Camptosaurus
(Bent lizard).
Phonetic: Camp-toe-sore-us.
Named By: Othniel Charles Marsh - 1885.
Synonyms: Brachyrophus altarkansanus,
Camptonotus dispar , Camptosaurus browni, C. medius, C.
nanus, Symphyrophus musculosus.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia, Dinosauria,
Ornithischia, Ornithopoda.
Species: C. dispar (type).
Type: Herbivore.
Size: Average 6 meters long, but some larger
individuals approached almost 8 meters long.
Known locations: USA.
Time period: Callovian to Oxfordian of the
Jurassic.
Fossil representation: Several specimens are known.
Once
again the term 'wastebasket taxon' looms like a spectre over
another dinosaur. Many of the fossils that were once attributed to
Camptosaurus have since been found to represent
other dinosaurs, and
this is especially true for the European species that were once
assigned to Camptosaurus. Despite this reduction
in species and
geographic distribution, Camptosaurus is still
reconstructed with
confidence.
Some
of the above confusion came about because of similarities to other
dinosaurs like Iguanodon,
among which had a thumb
spike, similar to
that found on Camptosaurus. As a basal form Camptosaurus
had
powerfully built legs and may have spent much of its time and standard
locomotion in a bipedal stance. Study of the fore limbs however do
show weight bearing adaptations, suggesting that Camptosaurus
was at
least sometimes a low browser and supported itself in a quadrupedal
fashion. The fingers however are not packed together and do have some
dextrous movement to them.
Camptosaurus
had a large amount of teeth in its
mouth and these often
show signs of heavy wear. This suggests that Camptosaurus
had to do a
lot of chewing in order to process its food properly, and may have
focused on plants too tough for other species to tackle.
Further reading
- Notice of new Jurassic reptiles - American Journal of Science and
Arts 18: 501–505. - O. C. Marsh - 1879.
- Names of extinct reptiles - American Journal of Science 29: 169. - O.
C. Marsh - 1885.
- The typical Ornithopoda of the American Jurassic - American Journal
of Science. 3 48: 85–90. - O. C. Marsh - 1894.
- Osteology of the Jurassic reptile Camptosaurus,
with a revision of
the species of the genus, and descriptions of two new species -
Proceedings of the United States National Museum 36: 197–332. - C. W.
Gilmore - 1909.
- The ornithischian dinosaur Camptosaurus
prestwichii
from the Upper
Jurassic of England - Palaeontology 23: 411–443. - P. M. Galton
& H. P. Powell - 1980.
- A new species of Camptosaurus (Ornithopoda:
Dinosauria) from the
Morrison Formation (Upper Jurassic) of Dinosaur National Moument, Utah,
and a biomechanical analysis of its forelimb - Annals of the Carnegie
Museum 76: 227–263. - K. Carpenter & Y. Wilson - 2008.
- New Basal Iguanodonts from the Cedar Mountain Formation of Utah and
the Evolution of Thumb-Spiked Dinosaurs - PLoS ONE 5 (11): e14075. - A.
T. McDonald, J. I. Kirkland, D. D. DeBlieux, S. K. Madsen, J. Cavin, A.
R. C. Milner & L. Panzarin - 2010.
- The taxonomy of species assigned to Camptosaurus
(Dinosauria:
Ornithopoda) - Zootaxa 2783: 52–68. - Andrew T. McDonald - 2011.
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