The Brachiosaurus was one of the biggest animals to ever walk the Earth! A lot of the information we have about the Brachiosaurus comes from the stuff we know about the Giraffatitan, which scientists used to think was one type of Brachiosaurus.
Giraffatitans weight as much as 23 tons, which is about as much as three full-grown elephants! But in 2009, scientists started to realize that the Brachiosaurus was even bigger than the Giraffatitan, and the new weight estimates are nearly 29 tons, which is close to the weight of four elephants!
These huge dinosaurs were plant eaters, and while they had necks that were 30 feet long and that let them reach plants that were high in the air, they mostly lived in the plains and munched on food that was on the ground.
One of the really recognizable traits of the Brachiosaurus is its front legs, which were longer than its back legs. In fact, the name Brachiosaurus means “arm lizard,” and it was called this because of these long front legs.
A Brachiosaurus could probably live to about 100 years old, and a full-grown Brachiosaurus was so big it didn’t have to worry about attacks from predators. Pretty cool! Of course, until a Brachiosaurus reached this size that made it safe from attack, it had to be careful, because there were plenty of dinosaurs looking for a big, tasty meal.
Online lessons for kids: dinolingo.com
