The Surprising Actual Weight of Brachiosaurus

[Article initialement publié le 21 février 2024]

The brachiosaurus, frequently called the “giraffe” of the prehistoric era, is a favorite among children who love dinosaurs for their plastic toy battles. This colossus had many impressive features, including its gigantic size. Its imposing weight has also aroused curiosity, although scientists have often debated this subject.

Brachiosaurusthe king of the giants?

In the world of dinosaurs, some clearly stand out from the others. Whether by their emblematic presence in films, like the Tyrannosaurus-Rex or the velociraptor, by their unique appearance or by their unparalleled dimensions in the current animal kingdom. The first fossils of the famous brachiosaurus, whose name means “armed lizard”, were discovered in the United States at the beginning of the 20th century, in the famous Grande River valley. It quickly became apparent that the brachiosaurus was one of the largest animals to ever walk the Earth.

Estimates based on its fossil remains, bolstered by its numerous film appearances, suggest an animal around twelve meters tall, whose neck was two-thirds its size. It has no equivalent in the current terrestrial animal kingdom. Quadruped, herbivorous and large, this animal could have crossed rivers while breathing easily, its head functioning like a snorkel. It was also proportionally smaller in relation to its body and had a flat snout. This morphology, reminiscent of that of African giraffes, would have allowed it to feed in the canopy of trees.

Brachiosaurus: XXL size and XXL weight?

Although there is not always a direct correlation between large size and heavy weight in animals, this is not the case for Brachiosaurus. This dinosaur has long intrigued paleontologists. Indeed, it was not only immense, but also extremely heavy, much more than any current elephant. But how massive was it? According to 20th century research, it was estimated that the brachiosaurus could have weighed around 50 tons. It might not have been enough to make the Earth shake with every step, but it was still impressive. However, studies conducted in the 2000s revised these estimates downward.

Researchers modeled a brachiosaurus in 3D from the skeleton of a sauropod present at the Berlin Natural History Museum in Germany in 2012. They concluded that our dinosaur was a little thinner than previously thought. It would have weighed around 23 tonnes, which is still titanic. That's the weight of a tracked excavator or twenty-four Opel Corsas if you're a car enthusiast.

Sources: National Geographic, Britannica