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Dinosaur Brachiosaurus
BRACHIOSAURUS VIDEO
Brachiosaurus is one of the largest known land animals, lived in the mid to late Jurassic period, or about 156 to 145 million years ago, it had a long neck, small head, and relatively short, thick tail. Its name, meaning "arm lizard", is derived from the prodigious length of its front legs.
Each neck vertebra was more than 3 feet (1 meter) long. Its large nostrils were located on top of its head, which caused speculation that Brachiosaurus might have spent time submerged in water.
Their nasal bones were expanded into a broad arch that presumably allowed them to maintain some distance between the vegetation and the nasal openings so that they could breathe easily while feeding. The mouth contained a few dozen pencil-like teeth with beveled edges.
Its weight has been estimated at about 80 tonnes, twenty times as heavy as a large elephant. Unlike other dinosaurs it had front legs longer than the hind ones, so that its back sloped upwards towards the head. In the Museum of Berlin there is a mounted skeleton of Brachiosaurus; the head is 13 metres above the ground, its upper arm bone is over 2 metres long, and it dwarfs the Diplodocus standing next to it.
Like most other dinosaurs, brachiosaurs did not chew their food but used their jaws to collect food, which the tongue presumably forced into the throat. Considering their massive size, their small heads, and the relatively poor quality of their forage, scientists have inferred that brachiosaurs must have spent nearly all their waking hours feeding.
Brachiosaurus fossils have been found in North America and Africa, the very first example having been discovered by Elmer S. Riggs in Grand River Canyon, western Colorado in 1900.
Characteristics
- Meaning:Arm lizard
- Length:26 meters (85 feet)
- Height:16 meters (50 feet)
- Weight:Kilograms (10,000 pounds)
- Type of feeder:Plant eater (herbivore)
- Teeth:52 chisel-like teeth
- Food:Ate the tops of tall trees
- How it walked:Walked on four legs, front legs longer than back legs
- Period:Jurassic
