North America Late Jurassic Apatosaurus Allosaurus Brachiosaurus Camarasaurus Ceratosaurus Archaeopteryx Toyway Play Vision Schleich Safari Bullyland model toy figures

Sauropods of the Mighty Morrison, which gives the best picture of a Late Jurassic environment. We get a more detailed picture of life in Jurassic than anywhere in the world.

Small dinosaurs seem to be very rare in the fossil record of the Morrison Formation. This could be an aspect of fossil preservation or may well represent some environmental factor that favored large size and worked against smaller dinosaurs. We have huge adult and good sized young sauropods but have not found nest sites or very young animals. More recently examination of the fossils has led to the idea that many of the supposed adolescent sauropods were actually adult members of smaller related species. The supposition is that sauropods found somewhere else to lay their eggs and act as nurseries for small off spring. Size difference likely made parental care impractical. It is thought based on the track record that young sauropods formed age specific groups for safety until they were big enough to join adult groups.

Diplodocus is relatively common, Apatosaurus and Brachiosaurus are less common.

Bullyland Micro Tier Apatosaurus, Brachiosaurus and Betta diplodocid. Back ground from AllDinos.com Giants of the Jurassic set.

Sauropod egg sites from South America in the Cretaceous indicated sauropods laid nests of of a dozen or so eggs. The teenage sauropods would have been an important food source for the Allosaurus packs in the Morrison. They would have been much safer prey than the giant adults.

Use scroll bar to view entire diorama. There are two blue young Schleich Apatosaurus, The current an older version of the Carnegie Safari young green Apatosaurus. Center is the Play Vision ANHM series Allosaurus, while in the back is the Toyway Walking with dinosaurs Big Al. The red Apatosaurus is from an unnamed series made in China sold in Europe. Hidden behind the Allosaurus and the Schleich Apatosaurus is an old Safari back ward looking Apatosaurus with a different older gray green paint job.

There is some speculation that Ceratosaurus had a more flexible tail making it a better swimmer than its competitor Allosaurus. There is fossil evidence that Allosaurus dined on Ceratosaurus which is rare except in the swampier parts of the Morrison. Allosaurus may have killed off other predators much like the lions of today kill off cheetahs, hyenas and leopards found in their territories.

Camarasaurus (chambered lizard") are the most common of the giant sauropods to be found in North America,with an average in size, of 60 feet in length as adults, and weighing up to 31 tons. Similar looking animals are still found in the Cretaceous.

Schleich Allosaurus and Carnegie Safari Camarasaurus.

Ceratosaurus is regarded as a primitive carnosaur a relic of the first large predator of the Mesozoic. Smaller than the more common Allosaurus it could still have been dangerous to smaller plant eaters.

Allosaurus was the lion of the Morrison. The is growing consensus that their were Allosaurus fossils represent two different but related animals. While Archaeopteryx has not been found in the Morrison but in Germany it is reasonable that some of its relatives were present. We get very few of the smaller creatures preserved in the Morrison strata. There is a preservation bias towards the larger animals which were characteristic of the formation.

Bullyland Archaeopteryx, Allosaurus from large Museum line these are part of Bullyland's modernizing of the Stuttgart Museum series. Both these models are considered to the best among kind. The Stegosaurus is from the Egg series and no loner in production. It represents the idea that stegosaurus used a the back legs a tail to form a tripod when browsing higher.

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