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Sadly, there is not much of him left now, considering he lived during the Jurassic Period. His skull was found in the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation in Montana, where other fossil dinosaurs have been recovered.
A study of the skull, which is just over 9 inches long, was published Thursday in the journal Scientific Reports.
"This skull is the smallest Diplodocus skull ever found," said Cary Woodruff, study author and director of paleontology at the Great Plains Dinosaur Museum in Montana. "It's not just its size that's important;
By observing the skull of the young Diplodocus, which is a long-necked sauropod like Brontosaurus, the team discovered that baby dinosaurs were a lot different than their parents – not equally smaller versions of them.
Diplodocus skulls are rare, and it's even more rare to find one's way to a young one.
The overall proportions and bone shapes suggest that the skull of an undergraduate change of shape changes through adulthood growth, Woodruff said.
Though the adults are known for the peg-like teeth at the forehead of their mouths, Andrew had those spatulate teeth at the back of his mouth.
"We believe that this combination of teeth is indicative of plant types, "Woodruff said." Which makes sense. These young dinosaurs are growing super fast, so they could quite literally eat 'all of its veggies' to fuel its rapid growth rate. "
Spatulate teeth can handle coarse vegetation and bulk feeding, rather than the soft foliage and grazing that are suitable for peg-like teeth.
Andrew had a short narrow snout, giving his parents had wide, square snouts. His snout was suited to forests, but his parents would be grazing the ground in open areas.
But if fed their babies, why would they need to have different teeth and snouts? The researchers believe that the babies fended for themselves and were separated from the adults.
The babies most likely lived in forests in age-segregated herds, which could protect them both from their own and from their own gigantic parents.
"I've been thinking about these roving bands of young people in the woods," Woodruff said. "These age-segregated herds are more likely to be more secure in the future than they are."
When the researchers first tested the skull in several ways to see what kind of sauropod Andrew was, they could not reach a definitive answer. They also wondered whether it might be a specimen of the species rather than a juvenile.
"Parts of it look like other things," Woodruff said. "At the end of the day, we believe that we are more likely to be seen than in other parts of the world." We also show attributes, including the internal aspects of the an adult. "
The discovery of Andrew is helping some fossils record for Diplodocus, but there are still many questions Woodruff would like to answer.
"Andrew represents a critical piece of the puzzle for understanding how young sauropods like Diplodocus grew up," he said. "But that story is far from complete, and I want to know more about the life history details of a Diplodocus 'entire life.'
There's also reason for his name. Although all the specimens get an ID number, so do humans, but we do not go by them, Woodruff said. A name like Andrew makes it more personal, Andrew's story.
"Andrew is specifically a nod to the Andrew Carnegie philanthropist," Woodruff said. "Carnegie funded many paleontological expeditions (many for sauropods in Utah), and he has a species of Diplodocus named in his honor: Diplodocus carnegii.S naming our specimen Andrew was a nod to Carnegie, and a nod to our calling Andrew a Diplodocus . "
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