Fruita, Colorado Riggs and crew found nearly two thirds of an "Apatosaurus excelsus" skeleton (commonly known as a Brontosaurus) on the northeast side of Dinosaur Hill, in Fruita. This is still considered to be one of the finest specimens known. Later, other sauropod bones were also found, which eventually led to the landmark's name. The animals were from the late Jurassic Age (150 million years ago) and within the Morrison Formation. Fossils of the "Fruitadens" (a heterodontosaurid dinosaur), the world's smallest known plant-eating dinosaur, were first found in the Fruita Paleontological Area (within the McInnis Canyons National Conservation Area) off Kings View
Jurassic for the large herbivorous dinosaurs known as the sauropods—"Camarasaurus", "Apatosaurus", "Diplodocus", "Brachiosaurus", and many others—that roamed the land late in the period; their foraging grounds were either the prairies of ferns, palm-like cycads and bennettitales, or the higher coniferous growth, according to their adaptations. The smaller Ornithischian herbivore dinosaurs, like stegosaurs and small ornithopods were less predominant, but played important roles. They were preyed upon by large theropods, such as "Ceratosaurus", "Megalosaurus", "Torvosaurus" and "Allosaurus". All these belong to the 'lizard hipped' or saurischian branch of the dinosaurs. During the Late Jurassic, the first avialans, like "Archaeopteryx", evolved from small