Camptosaurus

Type Species: Camptosaurus dispar 

Classification: Dinosauria – Ornithischia – Ornithopoda – Iguanodontia – Dryomorpha – Ankylopollexia

Time Period: Late Jurassic 

Location: United States 

Diet: Herbivore 

‬The Late Jurassic ornithopod Camptosaurus has gone through a ‘winnowing’ over the last several decades, as many assumed species have turned out to be different genera altogether. Nonetheless, Camptosaurus remains a steadfast citizen of the low-lying floodplains of the Morrison Formation, which stretched from New Mexico to Canada in western North America. This low-browsing ornithopod could grow up to twenty-six feet in length and could stand up to six and a half feet tall at the hips; it lived among other herbivores such as Stegosaurus and the sauropods Apatosaurus, Brachiosaurus, and Diplodocus. The largest predators of its environment were Allosaurus, Ceratosaurus, and Torvosaurus; to defend against these predators, Camptosaurus may have traveled in herds, utilized its grisly thumb-spike as a defensive weapon, or may have even attempted to flat-out run from its hunters (scientists speculate it could reach up to fifteen miles per hour running speed). It had powerfully built legs and may have spent much of its time in a bipedal stance, though its front legs were still able to bear its weight. Its fingers weren’t packed together, giving them some ability at movement, implying that it could feed from medium-height foliage by grasping food and bringing it to its mouth. Its skull was triangular with a pointed snout: when feeding, it would crop food with its beak, and it tightly-packed teeth chewing teeth wore down the food before swallowing it. Some scientists speculate that it fed on tough plant material that other low-browsing herbivores couldn’t handle. A nine-inch-long fossilized embryo, thought to belong to Camptosaurus, has been discovered in Utah.