Brachiosaurus is a genus of sauropod dinosaur that lived in North America during the Late Jurassic, about 154–153 million years ago. It was first described by American paleontologist Elmer S. Riggs in 1903 from fossils found in the Colorado River valley in western Colorado, United States. Brachiosaurus had longer forelimbs than hindlimbs, which resulted in a steeply inclined trunk, and a proportionally shorter tail.
About Brachiosaurus in brief
Brachiosaurus is a genus of sauropod dinosaur that lived in North America during the Late Jurassic, about 154–153 million years ago. It was first described by American paleontologist Elmer S. Riggs in 1903 from fossils found in the Colorado River valley in western Colorado, United States. Brachiosaurus had longer forelimbs than hindlimbs, which resulted in a steeply inclined trunk, and a proportionally shorter tail. It is regarded as a high browser, possibly cropping or nipping vegetation as high as 9 meters off the ground. It has been used as an example of a dinosaur that was most likely ectothermic because of its large size and the corresponding need for sufficient forage, but more recent research suggests it was warm-blooded. The type specimen of B. altithorax is still the most complete specimen, and only a few other specimens are thought to belong to the genus, making it one of the rarer sauropods of the Morrison Formation. The genus is based on a partial postcranial skeleton discovered in 1900 in the valley of the Colorado river near Fruita, Colorado. The generic name is Greek for \”arm lizard\”, in reference to its proportionately long arms, and the specific name means \”deep chest\”. It is the namesake genus of the family Brachiosauridae, which includes a handful of other similar sauroPods. Most popular depictions of Brachiososaurus are in fact based on Giraffatitan, a genus of brachiosaurid dinosaur from the Tendaguru Formation of Tanzania, but moved to its own genus in 2009.
More fossils are reported on Riggs Hill, but other fossil finds on the hill have been vandalized by vandalized vandalists. The site is today marked by a plaque by Riggs, but it is located on a small hill later known as Quarry 13, which is located in a field known as Riggs Hills. The fossil is currently cataloged as FMNH P 25107. It comes from rocks of the Brushy Basin Member of the Morrison Formation, and therefore is late Kimmeridgian in age, about 154 to 153 million years old, and is about 18 to 21 meters long. It had a disproportionately long neck, small skull, and large overall size, all of which are typical for sauro pods. Unlike other sauros, it was unsuited for rearing on its hind limbs, and was not known to have been able to climb trees or other tall trees. It may have been the largest land animal ever found, with a weight estimate of 28. 3 to 58 metric tons. It lived in the same area as the Tyrannosaurus rex, which lived in what is now called the Jurassic Park region of the United States in the late Jurassic period. It died out in the mid-1970s, but is thought to have had a life expectancy of about 20 years.
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This page is based on the article Brachiosaurus published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 02, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
