Talk:Brachiosaurus/DraftReWrite
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Brachiosaurus is a genus of sauropod dinosaur from the Jurassic Morrison Formation of North America. It was first found by Elmer Riggs in 1900, in the Grand River Canyon of western Colorado, in the United States. In 1903, Riggs first published on his findings and named the species Brachiosaurus altithorax, declaring it "the largest known dinosaur". Typical for a sauropod are the proportionally long neck, small skull, and large overall size of Brachiosaurus. Also, the limbs were pillar-like, and the hands columnar. Unusually, in contrast, are the brachiosaurid features: long forelimbs, which result in a steeply inclined trunk, making the overall body shape reminiscent of a modern giraffe. Also, while the tail is a typical long dinosaur tail, it is relatively short for a sauropod.
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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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Much of what is known by laypeople about Brachiosaurus is in fact based on Giraffatitan brancai, a species of brachiosaurid dinosaur from the Tendaguru Formation of Tanzania described by German paleontologist Werner Janensch as a species of Brachiosaurus. Recent research shows that the differences between the type species of Brachiosaurus and the Tendaguru material are significant enough that the African material should be placed in a separate genus.