Unfortunately, Brachiosaurus is a rare dinosaur, and very few additional bones have been found over the years, so the picture remains incomplete. Fortunately, skeletons of a closely related sauropod called Giraffatitan from Africa had the missing bones, so these were copied and added to the incomplete skeleton of Brachiosaurus, completing the puzzle. This composite skeleton was exhibited at the Field Museum of Natural history until it was moved to O’Hare International Airport to make room for ‘SUE’, the famous Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton.
Brachiosaurus was one of the largest dinosaurs, about 85 feet (26 metres) in length, and weighed about 35 metric tons. It had a very small head, long neck and tail, and walked on all fours. Unlike all other four footed dinosaurs, the front legs of Brachiosaurus were longer, rather than shorter, than the hind legs. In combination with its long neck, this allowed Brachiosaurus to reach leaves at least 30 metres (9 metres) into the forest canopy, giving it a big advantage over all other herbivorous dinosaurs.
