Brachiosaurus: what is it?

Brachiosaurs are among the largest and heaviest animals to ever walk the Earth. The erect necks of these giant sauropods allowed them to feed on leaves at the tops of trees and their impressive size probably deterred many predators.

The name of Brachiosaurus means “lizard with arms” and was attributed due to the longer fore limbs than the hind limbs of this dinosaur giant. Among the brachiosaurids is evidently Brachiosaurus altithorax which populated North America between the end of the Jurassic and the beginning of the Cretaceous. This group also contains Giraffatitan Brancaipresent in Africa at the end of the Jurassic.

Brachiosaurids are dinosaurs belonging to the group of saurischianswhose pubis is oriented forward as opposed to the ornithischians. Among the saurischians, Brachiosaurus is included in the sauropodomorphsin which are also placed the genera Apatosaurus, argentinosaurus, Diplodocus and Titanosaurus.

A giant with hidden nostrils

Brachiosaurus was a giant herbivore whose length was between 25 and 30 meters and must have weighed almost 80 tons. The erect posture of his neck, unlike that of Diplodocus, placed his head 12 meters above the ground. This height allowed it to feed on leaves in the treetops.

Brachiosaurids, like many other groups of dinosaurs, probably had the ability to thermoregulate and therefore were “warm-blooded”. This kind of metabolism is certainly one of the reasons why brachiosaurids reached sizes so big during their evolution. Brachiosaurus also had a prominence as well as cavities located on the top of the skull.

These have long been equated with nostrils specimens and it has been speculated that brachiosaurs could thus submerge almost completely in water and breathe through these very high nostrils. The analysis of the skeleton and soft tissues of modern species has nevertheless made it possible to refute this hypothesis and to prove that the nostrils of Brachiosaurus were at the tip of its snout.