Giraffatitan

"titanic giraffe"

Generic sauropod body-plan outline
You 1.8 m (5.9 ft) tall
Giraffatitan 26 m (85 ft) long
as long as 15 people standing fingertip to fingertip
generic sauropod body plan, scaled to length — not a silhouette of Giraffatitan
Length
26 m (85 ft)
Period
Late Jurassic (150–145 Mya)
Place
North America · Africa · Tanzania
Food
Herbivore
Clade
Brachiosauridae Dinosauria Saurischia Sauropodomorpha Sauropoda Giraffe-postured sauropods with long front legs.
Giraffatitan reconstruction by Connor Ashbridge
Reconstruction · Connor Ashbridge (CC-BY)

Giraffatitan (name meaning “titanic giraffe”) is a genus of sauropod dinosaur that lived during the late Jurassic Period (Kimmeridgian–Tithonian stages) in what is now Lindi Region, Tanzania. Only one species is known, G. brancai, named in honor of German paleontologist Wilhelm von Branca, who was a driving force behind the expedition that discovered it in the Tendaguru Formation. Giraffatitan brancai was originally described by German paleontologist Werner Janensch as a species of the North American sauropod Brachiosaurus from the Morrison Formation, as Brachiosaurus brancai. Recent research shows that the differences between the type species of Brachiosaurus and the Tendaguru material are so large that the African material should be placed in a separate genus.

What we know

  • Named by Paul, 1988.
  • Body length estimated at about 26 m.
  • Fossils found in North America and Africa.

What we guess

The reconstruction notes for Giraffatitan — soft tissue, color, behavior — haven't been written up yet. Only the recorded basics above are filled in so far.