Apatosaurus (meaning "deceptive lizard" ) is a
genus of extinct
sauropod dinosaurs that lived in North America during the
Late Jurassic period.
Othniel Charles Marsh described and named the first-known species,
A. ajax in 1877, and a second species,
A. louisae, was discovered and named by William H. Holland in 1916. They lived about 152 to 151 million years ago (mya), during the early
Tithonian age, and are now known from fossils in the
Morrison Formation of modern-day
Colorado,
Oklahoma, and
Utah, in the United States.
Apatosaurus had an average length of , and an average mass of at least . A few specimens indicate a maximum length up to 30% greater than average and a mass of .