Brachiosaurus

Brachiosaurus is one of the most spectacular dinosaurs ever seen, or imagined. It gets its name from the great height of its humerus, or upper arm bone - which is longer than most most humans are tall! For almost a century, Brachiosaurus was considered the tallest of all dinosaurs. It was over 15 meter (50 feet) tall, and no other animal came close. Imagine going to the fifth floor of a building and looking down at the sidewalk. Now imagine your feet are at the street level and this is how tall you are! Today, however, there is a new contender for the title of tallest dinosaur. It is , named in 2000.Scientists believe it would stand 18 meters (60 feet) tall!

Originally discovered in 1900 in Colorado, Brachiosaurus was named in 1903 by Elmer Riggs of the Field Museum in Chicago. Brachiosaurus lived in both the United States and Africa (Tanzania) in the Jurassic. Because Brachiosaurus would have been a terrible swimmer, this shows scientists that Africa and North America were connected during the Jurassic.

New studies by computer specialists suggest that Brachiosaurus may not have carried its neck angle up as high as was thought once. It may have carried the neck more at a 45 - 60 degree angle. Although this changes its height, it does not change its length - or our wonder at this gigantic, graceful dinosaur.

More real-life information: Brachiosaurus at Wikipedia.

Jurassic Park Franchise
Brachiosaurus did not appear in any of the novels. They do, however, appear in two films and they ultimately replaced the Apatosaurus from the novels. Brachiosaurs also appear in games and toy lines, and is the first dinosaur seen in the first movie, aside from the short appearance with the velociraptor in the opening sequence.. Like the case with Velociraptor and Spinosaurus, Brachiosaurus was a dinosaur previously poorly known to the general public, but made famous by the Jurassic Park franchise.

Jurassic Park
In Jurassic Park, the female Brachiosaurs were a light gray color, and roamed in herds with Parasaurolophus. Since this animal's enclosure is the closest to the Helicopter pad, it was the first animal seen by Alan Grant and the others upon approaching the Park complexes. It was here where Grant and Ellie Sattler viewed that Brachiosaurs were able to walk across the ground, and did not live completely in swamps or lakes.

A herd of Brachiosaurus is seen again in the scene A Tree For My Bed. The herd is 'singing', making whale-like noises. Alan Grant succeeds to imitate the hooting sound so the herd responds.

Later in the scene My Friend Brachiosaur Scene, a Brachiosaur eats from the tree in which Alan and the kids are sleeping. Alan succeeds to let the creature bite in a brach. With that brach he pulls the head closer. Now Alan and Tim can touch the dinosaur. The creature seems to have a cold. When Lex Murphy tries to pet the dinosaur it sneezes on her.

Accuracy
Scenes in the movie Jurassic Park showed Brachiosaurus as chewing its food. It is now known that sauropods like Brachiosaurus swallowed s, also called gizzard, or stomach stones. The stones served as a major part in plant digestion, by scraping and grinding the leaves apart after they are stripped off the trees by the needle-like teeth of the dinosaurs. Also, they can not rise on their hind legs, because they are shorter than their front legs.

Jurassic Park: The Game
While brachiosaurs do not appear in this game in the flesh, Dr. Gerry Harding and Dr. Laura Sorkin do mention them in an argument relating to the likelihood of the dinosaurs escaping. Sorkin says it is very unlikely that dinosaurs like Brachiosaurus was able to swim, even though they can be seen very clearly doing this in the scene from the first film. In Episode 4, they're heard in the background while Nima tells Gerry her story.

Jurassic Park III
takes place at the northern part of the island. In the plains of this territory Brachiosaurs are the dominated sauropod, roaming in large herds lead by an Alpha Male. Seldomly, herds were accompanied by other animals such as Stegosaurus and Ankylosaurus. Grant's party on Sorna did happen to meet a large Alpha Male Brachiosaur while floating down a river on a utility boat. Also, while flying over Sorna in a plane, Grant pointed out several Brachiosaurs to the Kirbys.

The Brachiosaurs of Jurassic Park III are differently colored than the Brachiosaurs of the first film. These Brachiosaurs were brown-gray in color, while the ones of the third film were beige with green stripes, and had a little bit of red at the tops of their heads. It is thought that this is because the sauropods in the first film were all female.

Jurassic Park: Trespasser
Brachiosaurus is the first dinosaur to be encountered in Jurassic Park: Trespasser. Two brachiosaurs are seen near the end of The Beach. Another Brachiosaur is seen after the cliff in the Jungle Road.

The ground shocks if a Brachiosaur is walking nearby. The Brach won't take notice of the player, even if the player shoots at the creature.

Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis
Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis as a five-star large herbivore. No carnivores attack it purposely, presumably because it's too big to attack. Brachiosaurus is significantly tall, reaching the treetops even on all fours. It is exponentially larger than it's movie counterparts (giving the accurate height of a real Brachiosaurus), measuring about 80–82 ft and stand 23 ft at the hips. This Brachiosaur seemed to be a mix of the Jurassic Park III and Jurassic Park Brachiosaurus colors. There is a mod that can let you have a male and female like in the movies.

other
The Brachiosaurus appears in most games, such as:


 * It is heard in Warpath: Jurassic Park in the main menu, and possibly in some other levels.
 * Jurassic Park III: Park Builder as number 57 of the Herbivore Threes that can be created.
 * In both the SEGA Genesis and Sega Game Gear versions. The games feature the dinosaur living in water despite this being an outdated theory.
 * It is heard in episode four of Jurassic Park: The Game, and only appears on the website.
 * Brachiosaurus is one of the available dinosaurs in the IOS application, Jurassic Park: Builder.

Toy lines
Only three Brachiosaurus toys were ever produced for Jurassic Park. The first was a Brachiosaurus hatchling with came with JP Series 1 Tim Murphy figure. The second appeared in the 2001 Jurassic Park III toyline which included a female Brachiosaurus toy, it appeared in Jurassic Park Dinosaurs toy line it comes with a mini stegosaurus toy.It also appeared in Jurassic Park Junior toy line.

Trivia

 * Brachiosaurs is the only dinosaur to be given a possible mazimum age. The encyclopedia included with DVD of the first film puts their age at a maximum of 200 years. However, it is unlikely that they would reach this age due to predation and exposia to the prion based DX disease.