Apatosaurus "Apatosaurus" may have been more solitary than other Morrison Formation dinosaurs. Fossils of the genus have only been found in the upper levels of the formation. Those of "Apatosaurus ajax" are known exclusively from the upper Brushy Basin Member, about 152–151 mya. "A.louisae" fossils are rare, known only from one site in the upper Brushy Basin Member; they date to the late Kimmeridgian stage, about 151mya. Additional "Apatosaurus" remains are known from similarly aged or slightly younger rocks, but they have not been identified as any particular species, and thus may instead belong to "Brontosaurus". The Morrison Formation records a
Apatosaurus which good skull material was known at the time. The mount construction was overseen by Adam Hermann, who failed to find "Apatosaurus" skulls. Hermann was forced to sculpt a stand-in skull by hand. Osborn said in a publication that the skull was "largely conjectural and based on that of "Morosaurus"" (now "Camarasaurus"). In 1903 Elmer Riggs published a study that described a well-preserved skeleton of a diplodocid from the Grand River Valley near Fruita, Colorado, Field Museum of Natural History specimen P25112. Riggs thought that the deposits were similar in age to those of the Como Bluff in Wyoming from