Brachiosaurus was a large sauropod that could reach up to 15m tall and 28m long, weighing about 50 tons. It had a giraffe-like build and was herbivorous. Other sauropods, such as Giraffatitan, Argentinosaurus, and Sauroposeidon, were even larger. Bruhathkayosaurus is thought to be the heaviest dinosaur ever, weighing up to 175-220 tons.
For many decades, king among the largest known dinosaurs was Brachiosaurus, a large sauropod. This dinosaur reached a height of 15 m (48 ft) and could be up to 28 m (92 ft) long. It weighed about 50 tons. Based on its enormous size, it likely had no predators. Brachiosaurus is no longer the largest known dinosaur, but it is among the largest dinosaurs known from a complete skeleton. Unlike many other sauropods, Brachiosaurus had a giraffe-like build that would have allowed it to reach the leaves of the tallest trees. Like other sauropods, Brachiosaurus had a barrel-shaped abdomen, erect limbs, and was herbivorous. It would have dominated larger dinosaurs that were predators, such as theropods like T. Rex.
The time it took for a Brachiosaurus to reach full size varies depending on whether it was warm-blooded or cold-blooded: if warm-blooded, it would have taken about 10 years to reach full size, and if cold-blooded, 100 years. Many scientists believe that dinosaurs were somewhere between today’s warm- and cold-blooded animals, with a high metabolism for a reptile but slow compared to mammals. To grow to adulthood, the dinosaur would have had to consume about 182 kg (400 lbs) of food per day. The larger dinosaurs benefited from their bulk, which would have been effective at retaining heat and keeping the animal’s metabolism high.
Believe it or not, there were other sauropods bigger than Brachiosaurus. One genus, Giraffatitan, is a couple of meters taller than Brachiosaurus, to which it was closely related. Other “brachiosaurids” appear to have been larger or heavier than Brachiosaurus, including Argentinosaurus and Supersaurus. A brachiosaurid, Sauroposeidon, whose name means “lizard god of earthquake,” was up to 17 m (56 ft) tall, making it the tallest and one of the largest known dinosaurs. Sauroposeidon probably weighed up to 60 tons, 20% more than Brachiosaurus.
Another dinosaur, Bruhathkayosaurus, whose name means “huge-bodied lizard,” is thought to be the heaviest dinosaur that ever lived. It is controversial, however, as the remains are fragmentary and have not been adequately described. If initial estimates are correct, the species weighed up to 175-220 tons. It could have been even heavier than the blue whale, which weighs 180 tons. This large-bodied dinosaur isn’t the biggest (although it was huge), but it was thought to be the heaviest, due to its fat body.
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