Brachiosaurus
Brachiosaurus Temporal range: Upper Jurassic
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Bronze cast of a B. altithorax specimen outside the Field Museum of Natural History | |
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Genus: | Brachiosaurus Riggs, 1903
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Brachiosaurus (meaning "Arm lizard") was a herbivorous dinosaur genus that lived in the Upper Jurassic period. The name comes from the fact that the Brachiosaur's front legs were longer than its back legs. Most other dinosaurs had back legs that were longer than their front legs or arms. Brachiosaurus was about 25 m (82 feet) long and 13-18 meters (42-60 feet) tall. It was one of the biggest dinosaurs.
Brachiosaurus was a sauropod. Its fossils were found in North America and Asia. At full stretch, Brachiosaurus could reach heights of up to 16 meters (52 feet). The Brachiosaurus skeleton in the Humboldt Museum in Berlin, Germany is both the tallest and largest complete sauropod skeleton. This means that it is also the tallest and largest complete dinosaur skeleton.