Brachiosaurus Facts for Kids
A gentle giant that could peek over a four-storey building, ate treetops all day and never chewed a single bite.
What was Brachiosaurus?
Brachiosaurus was a giant long-necked dinosaur that ate plants. It lived about 154 to 150 million years ago, in the Late Jurassic, in what is now western North America. It held its head about 12 metres off the ground, as high as the roof of a four-storey building.
Its name means “arm lizard”. That is because its front legs were longer than its back legs, so its shoulders sloped up like a giraffe’s. Brachiosaurus belongs to a group of giant plant-eaters called sauropods, the biggest animals ever to walk on land.
📏 How tall was Brachiosaurus?
Head height of each one, from the ground to the top of the head.
- Brachiosaurusabout 12 m
- A tall giraffeabout 5.5 m
- T. rexabout 4 m
- A 7-year-oldabout 1.2 m
Swallow, don’t chew
Brachiosaurus had chisel-shaped teeth that worked like a rake. It pulled leaves off branches and swallowed them whole, without chewing at all. Its enormous belly did the rest of the work, slowly breaking the food down.
Its long neck let it reach food that other animals could not, high up in the conifer trees. To keep a body that big going, it had to eat a huge amount of plants every day.
Giant body, small surprises
- Its eggs were no bigger than a football, tiny for such a huge animal. Read more in dinosaur eggs.
- Sauropods laid dozens of eggs at a time in nests scraped into the ground.
- Skin fossils of its relatives show bumpy scales arranged in little flower-shaped rosettes.
- It lived about 80 million years before T. rex. They never met!
Did Brachiosaurus live in lakes?
Old books often showed Brachiosaurus wading in deep lakes, with only its head poking out like a snorkel. Scientists once thought such a heavy animal needed water to hold it up.
Now we know that picture is wrong. Deep water would have squeezed its chest so hard it could barely breathe, and its long legs, narrow feet and fossil footprints show it walked on dry land, browsing the treetops like a giraffe.
Fun Brachiosaurus Facts
It was named in 1903.
The first Brachiosaurus bones were found in Colorado in 1900, and the scientist Elmer Riggs named it three years later.
Its front legs were longer than its back legs.
That is the opposite of most dinosaurs, and it is where the name “arm lizard” comes from.
It ate from the tops of conifer trees.
Conifers are trees with needles and cones, like pines and monkey puzzles. There was no grass and no fruit on Earth yet.
Sauropod eggs were about the size of a football.
Thousands of sauropod eggs have been found at one site in Argentina, some with tiny babies still inside.
Babies had to grow up fast.
A hatchling small enough to fit in your arms had to grow into a giant many times taller than you.
Science words to know
- Sauropod
- A giant plant-eating dinosaur with a long neck and long tail.
- Jurassic
- The middle part of the age of dinosaurs, about 201 to 145 million years ago.
- Conifer
- A tree with needles and cones, like a pine.
- Browse
- To eat leaves from trees and bushes.
Quick quiz!
0 / 31. What does the name Brachiosaurus mean?
2. How did Brachiosaurus eat its leaves?
3. Did Brachiosaurus ever meet T. rex?
Questions kids ask
How tall was a Brachiosaurus?
Its head reached about 12 metres (about 40 feet) off the ground, as high as a four-storey building.
What did Brachiosaurus eat?
Leaves from the tops of trees, especially conifers. It raked them off with chisel-shaped teeth and swallowed them whole.
Why did Brachiosaurus have a long neck?
A long neck let it reach leaves high in the trees, and gather lots of food without walking far. See how scientists read diets in what did dinosaurs eat.
Is Brachiosaurus the biggest dinosaur?
It was one of the giants, but some other sauropods found in South America were even longer and heavier.
Brachio Run
Stretch your long neck and weave through the treetops! Steer a Brachiosaurus around the branches and munch leaves all the way to the finish.
✔ The whole Dinosaur Wing is free to play
No ads, ever · Plays offline · Made for young kids and adults
