Brachiosauridae

The Brachiosauridae are a family or clade of herbivorous, quadrupedal sauropod dinosaurs. Brachiosaurids had long necks that enabled them to access the leaves of tall trees that other sauropods would have been unable to reach. In addition, they possessed thick spoon-shaped teeth which helped them to consume tough plants more efficiently than other sauropods. They have also been characterized by a few unique traits or synapomorphies; dorsal vertebrae with 'rod-like' transverse processes and an ischium with an abbreviated pubic peduncle.

Brachiosauridae

AStrangerintheAlps · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Also called
brachiosauridPBDB
Sits inside
TitanosauriformesPBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB, for Sauropoda
Life habit
ground dwelling, gregariousPBDB, for Sauropoda
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Sauropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Sauropoda

Time the record covers

At least 54 million years on record.

The record covers at least 154.8 Mya to 100.5 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 161.5 Mya to 93.9 Mya.

Middle Jurassic — about 0 of 93 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 71 of 93 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 19 of 93 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 3 of 93 occurrencesLate Cretaceous163–161 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences161–158 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences158–156 Mya — about 2 occurrences156–153 Mya — about 3 occurrences153–151 Mya — about 7 occurrences151–149 Mya — about 12 occurrences149–146 Mya — about 20 occurrences146–144 Mya — about 18 occurrences144–142 Mya — about 8 occurrences142–139 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences139–137 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences137–135 Mya — about 2 occurrences135–132 Mya — about 2 occurrences132–130 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences130–128 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences128–125 Mya — about 1 occurrence125–123 Mya — about 1 occurrence123–121 Mya — about 1 occurrence121–118 Mya — about 1 occurrence118–116 Mya — about 2 occurrences116–114 Mya — about 2 occurrences114–111 Mya — about 1 occurrence111–109 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences109–107 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences107–104 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences104–102 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences102–100 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences100–97 Mya — about 1 occurrence97–95 Mya — about 1 occurrence95–93 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences154.8 Mya100.5 Mya163 Mya93 Mya

93 occurrences of Brachiosauridae on record, most of them in the Late Jurassic. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

93 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

19 formations

Tendaguru — 9.70°S, 39.23°ETendaguru — 9.69°S, 39.25°EMorrison — 41.91°N, 105.96°WMorrison — 38.54°N, 105.22°WMorrison — 44.65°N, 107.82°WMorrison — 38.64°N, 108.19°WMorrison — 36.90°N, 102.83°WMorrison — 39.07°N, 108.65°WMorrison — 39.08°N, 108.65°WMorrison — 42.02°N, 106.05°WMorrison — 44.02°N, 104.24°WMorrison — 39.15°N, 108.77°WMorrison — 40.41°N, 109.22°WMorrison — 37.50°N, 109.45°WMorrison — 44.05°N, 107.46°WMorrison — 38.25°N, 110.81°WMorrison — 44.06°N, 106.72°WMorrison — 39.14°N, 109.02°WMorrison — 38.58°N, 108.40°WCedar Mountain — 38.85°N, 109.56°WCedar Mountain — 38.83°N, 109.47°WCedar Mountain — 39.18°N, 110.11°WCedar Mountain — 38.72°N, 109.69°WCedar Mountain — 40.44°N, 109.31°WKirkwood — 33.44°S, 25.45°ETurney Ranch — 31.81°N, 110.42°WKitadani — 36.12°N, 136.54°EKadzi — 16.27°S, 30.80°ELourinhã — 39.24°N, 9.34°WPaluxy — 33.06°N, 97.60°WVillar del Arzobispo — 40.66°N, 0.88°WArcillas de Morella — 40.62°N, 0.10°WGolmayo — 41.77°N, 2.53°WCalcaires de Clerval — 47.07°N, 5.42°ESüntel — 52.29°N, 8.71°EElrhaz — 16.47°N, 9.17°EMugher Mudstone — 10.25°N, 39.00°ELongjing — 42.87°N, 129.49°EWessex — 50.63°N, 1.40°WSao Khua — 16.90°N, 102.65°E

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The named rock units Brachiosauridae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 4 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Brachiosauridae and its relatives

Late Jurassic

Where Brachiosauridae and its relatives were recorded in the Late Jurassic.

Found in the same rock

255 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 87 sites for Brachiosauridae, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

51 references

Each of the 93 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 39 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Brachiosauridae

Credit
AStrangerintheAlps
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Brachiosauridae was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itTitanosauriformes through timeFormations of the Late JurassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Riggs 1904