Brachiosaurus

Brachiosaurus was a large quadrupedal herbivorous dinosaur from the same Order as Apatosaurus and Diplodocus. Unlike its longer, less bulky relatives, the Brachiosaurus had long forelimbs and held its head high above its body, similar to a giraffe.

Fast Facts

1. Name Means: "Arm lizard"
2. Naming Credit: Elmer S. Riggs (1900)
3. Range: North America, Africa, Europe
4. Classification:
   1. Order: Saurischia
   2. Infraorder: Sauropoda
   3. Family: Brachiosauridae
   4. Genus: Brachiosaurus
   5. Type Species: Brachiosaurus altithorax
5. Period: Late Jurassic
6. Length: 80 feet
7. Height: 40 feet
8. Weight: 40 tons
9. Estimated Lifespan: Potentially 100 years
10. One of the largest Jurassic sauropods
11. Skeleton mounted at O'Hare International Airport
12. Popular Culture: Jurassic Park, Jurassic Park III
13. Asteroid 1991 GX renamed 9954 Brachiosaurus

Towering Giants of the Plains

Most sauropod dinosaurs were identified by their long necks, long tails, and largely horizontal body orientation. Brachiosaurus, which inhabited the same grassland and savanna habitats as other sauropods, had a much more vertical, bulky body plan thanks to their long forelimbs. It is likely that Brachiosaurus fed from the tops of trees.

Cold or Hot Blooded?

The debate as to whether dinosaurs were cold blooded ectotherms like reptiles or warm blooded endotherms like their descendants the birds may have to include another variable in the case of the massive sauropods, who may have been gigantotherms.

Gigantotherms are essentially cold-blooded animals whose body temperature is regulated by their lower surface-to-volume ratio.

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