25 Brachiosaurus Facts For Kids
We take a look at some of the other brachiosaurus facts in the article below.
Brachiosaurus is a firm favorite with lots of people, and although their is a lot we do know about this massive herbivore, there is still plenty to learn. lets see if we can help you learn some more brachiosaurus facts. We have some quick facts first then the full list below.
25 Brachiosaurus Facts for Children.
1. Brachiosaurus was a large, heavy, long-necked dinosaur and was thought to be the biggest for many years. . Although very popular it wasn’t actually the biggest found so far, that was either the argentinosaurus or the Dreadnoughtus. (more on that on their pages!)
2. It lived about 150 million years ago during the Late Jurassic Period and would have lived with allosaurus, apatosaurus and other dinosaurs of that time.It may have moved in herds with smaller herbivores as well for protection, both theirs and the smaller dinosaurs.
3. The name brachiosaurus literally means “arm lizard” in Latin. It was named “arm Lizard” because its front legs are longer than its hind legs. Brachio means arm and Saurus means lizard. It was given its name in 1903 three years after its discovery. However we think there are other features that make it stand out, not up, more!
4. Brachiosaurus was a huge dinosaur. This herbivore probably weighed around 29 to 58 metric tons which is 116,000 lbs! This is about 15 Average sized elephants! It belonged to the Sauropod family which means “lizard foot” but actually describes these dinosaurs sizes, big legs and long necks. It ate about 880 lbs of food every day to get to this weight! That’s a lot of food to put into a small head!
5. It measured about 26 meters (85 feet) from head to tail. It was thought to be the biggest dinosaur ever for a lot of years but there are other dinosaurs that have taken the crown now. Including Argentinosaurus, Dreadnoughtus and Titanosaurus.
6. It would have been able to stand about 12 metres in height, which is the same as a 4 story building. If it could raise itself on hind legs, though now this is not thought to have happened, this would have been even taller. Sauroposeidon might be the tallest at 60 ft tall… 20 meters
7. Brachiosaurus was a herbivorous dinosaur and its diet probably consisted of trees, leaves, twigs, and fruit eaten from high branches on trees. It was able to eat both high and low foliage and there is some debate on which it prefered.
8. Brachiosaurus did live at the same time and in the same places as other long necked dinosaurs ( sauropods), Apatosaurus and diplodocus, as well as smaller herbivore dinosaurs. To do this there must have been plenty of food for them as the brachiosaurus would have eaten the higher leaves and the others would eat lower down.
9. It had a small head relative to its body but this wasn’t known for sure as, weirdly, the head was quite easy to remove from the body! Only in 1998 was a skull proved as a brachiosaurus head identified.
However, this skull had been found in 1883, over 100 years before then. It was identified then as a brontosaurus skull incorrectly by Othniel Marsh who found a lot of dinosaurs back then! .
10. The neck of a brachiosaurus would have been about 30ft (9 metres) long. Its neck was so long that it could eat leaves from trees high up in the forest canopy
11. It had four sturdy legs, but was unusual as its front legs were longer than its back. This is how it got its name.
12. Having longer front legs than back may have given the dinosaur the name brachiosaurus, but they certainly were not arms. They were likely used to get it small head closer to the high leaves in trees, maybe out of the the reach of other sauropods.
13. Brachiosaurus was one of the oldest dinosaurs to live. A rule of thumb is the bigger and slower an animal or dinosaur is the longer life span it would have. It is possible that they lived to over 100 years if they stayed healthy. There was certainly no predator big enough to eat them once they were full size!
14. Fossils have been found in a few location but the most have come from the Morrison Formation ( an area with lots of fossils in North America)
15. Even though movies show the Brachiosaurus at home in the water this would have been less likely. It had a body filled with air, and not very stable in the water if it got too deep. Pressure if in deep water may have caused breathing problems. However it may have felt comfortable wading in shallow waters.
16. To maintain their size scientists estimate that brachiosaurus would have to consume up to 900lb (400 kg) of food every single day! that’s about 15 – 8th graders in weight.
17. Brachiosaurus is certainly an “A-List” movie star. it is one of the first dinosaurs in the Jurassic Park Series and appears in all of the movies, however it was also ( kinda) in Star wars! as the idea of the animal that the Jawa’s ride on in Tatooine.
18. Brachiosaurus fossils have been found in North America, mostly in Colorado but also in Wyoming, Oklahoma and Utah. Although sauropods have been found all over the world it looks like brachiosaurus was a North American dinosaur.
19. There is still research on if brachiosaurus was warm blooded or cold blooded or even something in-between. Brachiosaurus was likely a warm-blooded animal and researchers have stated that brachiosaurus had a body temperature of 100.8 F (38.2 C),
20. Brachiosaurus had 52 teeth. 26 teeth on its upper jaw and 26 on its lower jaw. these were cone shaped and designed to strip leaves off branches. It probably didn’t use them for chewing and just swallowed them whole. Other members of the sauropod family had more spoon shaped teeth.
21. Brachiosaurus likely moved in herds from place to place until the food ran out. it is unlikely they moved up hills due to their huge size, and would have preferred flat ground to walk on to save energy. Just like most of us! Although dinosaurs moving in herds and packs is conjecture for most dinosaur species we are pretty sure some sauropods did live together.
22. To make sure it had enough to eat (880 lbs a day remember!) it would have loved in forests and plains with plenty of trees and large green ferns to munch on.
23. It is thought that brachiosaurus would not have been a fast runner, although when it was younger and lighter! it would have been able to try to get away from predators by running. It was even suggested at one point that when babies they might have been able to run on their hind legs, but this is not thought to be possible.
Once an adult it is thought to be able to run at around 7-10 miles an hour and its walking speed is around 5 miles an hour. . it would have used its size to put off predators not its speed!
24. Its eyes were on the sides of its head, so it could see in all directions.
25. Brachiosaurus name is pronounced with 5 syllables. Brak – ee – oh – saw – rus
Brak – ee – oh – saw – rus
Conclusion
For a long time Brachiosaurus was considered to be the largest dinosaur ever to walk on Earth. however, times change and now there are two more heavyweights who are challenging for that title. The Argentinosaurus and and the Dreadnoughtus. So it may have lost the title of biggest dinosaurs ever, but its 85 ft long bony, and 100,000 weight still means brachiosaurus was one of the biggest animals ever on our planet, and well worth knowing more about we think!
You can check out their pages and other herbivores and carnivores on pages on our site. you can also learn more about this the brachiosaurus on our Questions and Answers pages here.
Some of My Dinosaur Resource Recommendations for Home and School.
Thanks for taking the time to read our facts and questions articles, as a teacher myself i have struggled to find resources in one place and that is why this website was born. I simply love teaching students about dinosaurs both in my role as a language and General Studies teacher. However there is sometimes a need for something more concrete than a printout (as useful as we think ours are! )
Sometimes having something tactile to touch in those tiny hands help to focus and cement learning and develop those big brains! Hope they are helpful too.
Dinosaur Books and Readers
There are of course hundreds of excellent, and not so excellent books on Dinosaurs for Children out there. So rather than, yet, go into huge detail. I will highlight the ones I love to use with my students from ages 6 to 10. We have include AR in these as well. ( nothing quite like a moving dinosaur in front of you!
Fossil Sets
I cant say how great these are to use in a classroom while reading with a group. the chance to read about a dinosaur and then touch a real piece is simply great. I have a selection ( self confessed dinosaur geek) but a cheap set of 10 or so will do the trick just as well. Dinosaur poop is great as well!!! i pass it round and ask them to guess what it is first!
Dinosaur Figures
I actually use realia in a lot of classes especially with animals and dinosaurs, and figures help to show the kind of animal we are reading about. It is possible to spend hundreds of dollars on dinosaur figures but there is no need, either as a teacher or a parent. The set below and similar we have used to help students picture dinosaurs to great effect.
References
https://www.livescience.com/25024-brachiosaurus.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brachiosaurus#Skull
https://www.thoughtco.com/things-to-know-brachiosaurus-1093776
Hi, I am Roy Ford a General Studies and English Teacher who has taught all over the world. What started as a fossil collection became a great way to teach, motivate and inspire students of all ages and all over the world about dinosaurs and from that and children’s love of dinosaurs came the site dinosaur facts for kids, a resource for all ages.
