Brachiosaurus

Extinct

This animal is extinct. No living individuals remain.

Brachiosaurus was a tall plant-eating dinosaur of Jurassic North America. Its forelimbs were longer than its hind limbs, giving the body an upward-sloping profile beneath a long neck.

Brachiosaurus, AI-generated lifelike reconstruction — AI-generated reconstruction. Colors and soft tissues are interpretive.

At a glance

Diet: Herbivore
Food: Tree foliage and other vegetation.

Classification

Common name: Brachiosaurus
Browse group: Reptiles
Scientific name or taxon: Brachiosaurus
Taxon rank: genus
Family: Brachiosauridae
Genus: Brachiosaurus
Source classification: Reptilia

Taxonomy checked against GBIF. For breeds and hybrids, this describes the listed parent taxon.

Three things to know

Its forelimbs were longer than its hind limbs.
It ate plants.
No complete skeleton is known.

Habitat and range

Brachiosaurus is known from Late Jurassic deposits in the United States. African fossils once assigned to the genus are now generally called Giraffatitan and are not treated here as a second Brachiosaurus range.

Appearance and adaptations

Long forelimbs raised the shoulders above the hips. The neck and elevated head suited feeding well above the ground. Full reconstructions require comparison with relatives because no complete Brachiosaurus skeleton is known.

Diet and behaviour

Tree foliage supplied food. Plants were swallowed without the elaborate chewing used by many mammals, and microbial fermentation helped process the vegetation. Much about posture and daily behaviour must be inferred from incomplete fossils.