How It Works-Book Of Dinosaurs

© A lamy; Gett y

Its name translates as ‘arm lizard’

because unusually for dinosaurs its

front legs were longer than its hind legs

Brachiosaurus

Length: 25-30m (82-98ft)

Height: 15m (49ft)

Weight: 60 tons

Diet: Herbivore

Discovered: Colorado, USA

The statistics...

Neck

Brachiosaurus’s neck

was huge and made up

of 1m (3.3ft)-long

vertebrae. Due to the

weight of the neck, it

would have typically kept

it at near 90 degrees

Head

Brachiosaurus had a small head

compared with its overall size,

with a sauropod brain. The skull

had a distinctive bar of bone in

the middle of the forehead,

creating a large bulge

Brachiosaurus vs human

How does this mega-dino size up to your average Homo sapien?

Each vertebra in the neck of

Brachiosaurus was approximately

one metre (3.3 feet) in length,

which is absolutely colossal

compared with the largest animals

around today. Combined, these

vertebrae formed an extensive,

snake-like neck that enabled the

Brachiosaurus to reach up into tall

trees and other plants with ease to

feed on foliage – of which it

needed vast quantities to survive.

Importantly, despite the long

neck giving Brachiosaurus a keen

browsing advantage when

compared with other smaller

dinosaurs, as a payoff it would

have needed a near-vertical neck

posture most of the time in order

to prevent injury.

Unlike the popular 20th-century

view that Brachiosaurus would

raise and lower its head to access

different tiers of foliage, it is now

generally thought that only the

immediate level around its head

height would have been eaten,

with lower tiers of leaves only

consumed by juveniles.

The high life

30m

15m

DID YOU KNOW? (^) Brachiosaurus could not rear up on its hind limbs as depicted in Jurassic Park