Camarasaurus supremus

Camarasaurus supremus was named by the American paleontologist Edward Drinker Cope in 1877 from fossils discovered in Colorado. It was the type species of the genus Camarasaurus, and Cope's description was part of the intense period of fossil discovery in the American West known as the Bone Wars, his famous rivalry with Othniel Charles Marsh.

Camarasaurus supremus fossils come from the Morrison Formation, a Late Jurassic geological formation that spans much of western North America, including Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, and other states. The Morrison Formation is one of the richest sources of Jurassic dinosaur fossils in the world, yielding specimens of many sauropods and theropods.

The name Camarasaurus means 'chambered lizard,' referring to the hollow chambers or cavities in the animal's vertebrae that helped reduce the weight of its enormous spine. These camerate vertebrae are a distinguishing feature of the genus and differ from the solid or differently structured vertebrae of other Morrison Formation sauropods like Diplodocus or Apatosaurus.

Camarasaurus was generally shorter and more robustly built than the longer, more slender Diplodocus, with a comparatively large skull and spoon-shaped teeth suited for crushing tougher vegetation. It is one of the most commonly found sauropods in the Morrison Formation, and many relatively complete skeletons have been recovered, making it one of the better-understood sauropod genera.