apate-, apat- +

1. In zoology, relating to or characterized by coloration serving as natural camouflage.
2. Assuming colors and forms that effect deceptive camouflage.
3. Relating to the protective resemblance to some part of the environment or to the markings of another species for the purpose of disguise.
4. Serving to conceal by deceptive camouflage.

Coloring serving as natural camouflage.

1. A mineral so called because it is often mistaken for other minerals.
2. A glassy, variously colored calcium phosphate mineral; used in fertilizers and is a source of phosphorus.
3. Etymology: Greek apate, "deceit"; from its diversity of form and color.

A “deceptive lizard” was once called Brontosaurus (“thunder lizard”) from the way it supposedly made the ground shake as it walked; from Late Jurassic Colorado, Oklahoma, Utah, and Wyoming (USA).

Its name is based on Greek apatan, apatao, “illusory, deception”; a reference to the Y-shaped chevrons (or hemal arches) on the underside of the tail, that Marsh thought were deceptively like those found in some mosasaurs (Tylosaurus, Platcarpus, etc.).

Apatosaurus does not mean “headless lizard” as some seemed to have thought. Named by Othniel Charles Marsh (1831-1899) in 1877.