Brachiosaurus << `brak` ee uh SAWR uhs or `bray` kee uh SAWR uhs >> was a gigantic, plant-eating dinosaur that lived about 150 million years ago in what are now Africa and North America. The name Brachiosaurus means arm lizard. Unlike most dinosaurs, Brachiosaurus had arm bones that were longer than its leg bones. These long arm bones placed the shoulders higher than the hips, and so the body sloped down from the base of the neck to the tail.
Brachiosaurus was about 75 feet (23 meters) long, stood about 40 feet (12 meters) tall, and weighed about 85 tons (77 metric tons). For many years, Brachiosaurus was thought to be the largest and heaviest dinosaur. But scientists have discovered even larger ones, including Seismosaurus << SYZ muh `sawr` uhs >>, which may have grown 110 feet (33 meters) long.
Brachiosaurus was a sauropod, a large dinosaur with a small head and a long neck and tail. But compared with other sauropods, such as Apatosaurus, Brachiosaurus had a longer neck and a shorter, thicker tail. The animal’s head featured a broad, flat snout and a large, dome-shaped ridge above the eyes. The nostrils opened from the ridge at the very top of the head.
Brachiosaurus bones found in western North America indicate that the dinosaur lived entirely on dry land. It probably ate leaves from the tops of trees, as giraffes do. Bones were also found near the sea in Tanzania in eastern Africa, where Brachiosaurus apparently lived in lowlands near the shore.
