The Late Jurassic was the heyday of dinosaur giants. Apatosaurus, Barosaurus, Brachiosaurus, and Diplodocus were gargantuan, long-necked sauropods that reached lengths in excess of 70 feet, and some, such as Supersaurus and the diplodocid formerly known as “Seismosaurus”, stretched even longer. But what’s even more startling is that many of these massive dinosaurs were neighbors who trod among fern-covered floodplains dotted by swaths of conifer forest. These habitats, preserved in the American west’s Morrison Formation, must have been some of the most productive ecosystems of all time.

But the enormous sauropods didn’t enjoy an edenic existence. Part of the reason we know so much about them is because of vast graveyards strewn with the jumbled, disarticulated remains of Late Jurassic dinosaurs.