A Catalogue of Prehistoric Beasts

DENVER — Fossils of some of the dinosaurs that have been found in the Morrison Formation include:

* Apatosaurus: Popularly known as brontosaurus, one of the best-known dinosaurs. The 70-foot-long creature had a heavy body and legs and a long neck and tail.

* Diplodocus: Ninety feet long with most of the length from the long, narrow neck and long, whip-like tail. Its name means “double beam” describing a special feature of the backbone, a small bone that pointed forward as well as one pointed backward.

* Stegosaurus: Had a tiny, tubular skull with a brain the size of a walnut. It had small, flat plates on its neck and bigger, diamond-shaped plates on its back and forward part of its tail. Some were 30 feet long.

* Allosaurus: The largest carnivore in North America in the late Jurassic Period, it may have fed on other types of dinosaurs. It differed from other meat-eating dinosaurs in the shape of its skull, which was ridged from between the eyes to the tip of the snout. It was 35 feet long.

* Camarasaurus: A heavily built suaropod with a shorter tail and neck than the apatosaurus or diplodocus. Its skull was short, with a blunt snout and nostrils on the top of the head--features that have led scientists to believe it could have lived in water. It usually grew to about 60 feet in length.