Brachiosaurus
Live reconstruction of Brachiosaurus altithorax
- North America
- Brachiosaurus altithorax
Brachiosaurus ( " Armechse " ) is a genus of sauropod dinosaur from the Upper Jurassic of North America. Brachiosaurus is one of the largest land animals of the earth's history. With other genera it forms the taxon Brachiosauridae due to common anatomical features such as the long front legs and the high-lying nostrils.
Description
Brachiosaurus was 23 feet long, on average, and 13 feet high. The maximum length is assumed at 25 to 27 meters. The shoulders were in 6.4 meters in height. Current weight estimates of Brachiosaurus altithorax amount to 28 tons, 35 tons, 44 tons (Foster, 2007) and 23 tonnes ( biologists in the scientific journal " Biology Letters " of the British Royal Society, 2012).
Brachiosaurus had a domed head with a broad, flat snout. In comparison to the body size of the skull was very small. On the jaw were peg-like teeth. The neck was unusually long ( 8-9 m). It consisted of 14 cervical vertebrae, no more than other sauropods, but each vertebra was about three times as long as a vertebra. Was also unusual in that its front legs exceeded the hind legs to length.
The finds
The fossil evidence of this dinosaur genus native to North America and possibly from Algeria and Portugal.
The assignment of the Algerian finds, as nougaredi is questionable. According to Upchurch, Barret and Dodson, this material does not belong to the genus Brachiosaurus, but at an unspecified Brachiosauriden.
The finds from Portugal, as atalaiensis belong loud Upchurch, Barrett and Dodson also not to the genus Brachiosaurus, and were provided by Antunes and Mateus in a separate genus Lusotitan.
Previously described by Werner Janensch finds from the Tendaguru formation of Tanzania as a kind of example were asked brancai in the genus Brachiosaurus. Is world famous especially the in the Berlin Museum of Natural History established skeleton. The Style brancai epithet honors the former director of the Museum Wilhelm von Branca, who funds the expedition. However, a detailed study by Michael Taylor pointed to a large number of serious differences between Brachiosaurus and the African material, so that it was placed in its own genus Giraffatitan that Paul was built in 1988.
B. fraasi is a junior synonym of B. is brancai what Janensch recognized as early as 1929.
" Ultrasauros "
In the Morrison Formation individual bones were found of a dinosaur, the Brachiosaurus surpassed in size, this, however, very similar. They gave him the name Ultrasaurus ( this was later changed to Ultrasauros because the original name was already taken ), his length was estimated to be more than 30 m, weight over 100 tons. However, in 1996 it turned out that it was only a " bone mixture" of Brachiosaurus and Supersaurus in the Fund. Ultrasauros thus regarded as nomen dubium.