#brachiosauridae

[saffronsdinosaurart]

Sauroposeidon at Sunset and Eclipse

I created the eclipse version as a background for my brother and I figured it wouldn't be that hard to make a version with some more color.

[makairodonx]

Jurassic June 2024 Day 28: Giraffatitan brancai

[mesozoicmarket]

A dinosaur tooth of an indeterminate sauropod from the Irhazer Group in the Agadez Region of Niger. The morphology is similar to what is described from the Atlasaurus imelakei, an early brachiosaurid or turiasaurian from the similarly aged deposits in Morocco like the Guettioua Formation and likely the El Mers Group. The tooth also has large denticles like Spinophorosaurus nigerensis which is described from these deposits, but the wrong shape of the crown.

[paleonativeart]

Day 5: Giraffatitan An African Brachiosaurid living by the sunrise. Just used my memory, instead using reference. #Dinovember #Dinovember2022 #paleoart #artistoninstagram #ballpoint #ballpointpen #ballpointpenart #ballpointpendrawing #brachiosauridae #giraffatitan #sauropoda https://www.instagram.com/p/CkmfDN6LZe-/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[rperboni]

(Note: I am not a professional paleontologist or even biologist. I am just and amateur paleoartist and enthusiast. If my infos are off in some way, feel free to correct them ^^)

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DINOCEMBER

12 - Giraffatitan brancai (from Greek "titanic giraffe") - Late Jurassic (150-145 Ma BCE) - Tendaguru Formation, Lindi, Tanzania One of the most impressive sauropods that has ever existed, the Giraffatitan is the member of its family with the most complete fossil material, being for a long time considered the largest terrestrial animal that has ever existed, at least 26 meters long, 12 meters high and weighing somewhere between 15 and 60 tonnes, today being smaller than its distant relatives, the titanosaurs, but still impressive nonetheless. Although its name is not familiar to many, the Giraffatitan has long been considered the African species of the Brachiosaurus genus in North America, until recent research has indicated its identity as a species of its own, but still a member of the same family. As a brachiosauridae, the Giraffatitan had as main characteristics its forelimbs larger than its hindqlimbs, a relatively short tail for a sauropod and a long and at the same time muscular neck, which it would use to reach the highest leaves of trees such as conifers, araucaria and palm trees, being a high-browser, just like the current giraffes, probably walking in small groups through the large savanna of the Tendaguru Formation, next to a large coastal plain, dotted with areas of tropical vegetation and wetlands, but still without plants with flowers or fruits , having as "sister" formations, both in fauna and environment, the Morrison Formation, in the western USA, and the Lourinhã Formation, in Portugal, all showing the great abundance of Jurassic paleofauna. For a long time, these large sauropods were believed to be aquatic animals, unable to support their massive bodies on land and using their nostrils on top of their heads as a "snorkel", but everything indicates that both the Giraffatitan and other large sauropods were totally able to live on dry land, with relatively light bones and air sac systems to reduce their weight, albeit massive. The position of their nostrils was also revealed to be erroneous, having them closer to the tip of their snouts, which is the rule in most tetrapods.

- Color scheme based on a Nyala (Tragelaphus angasii)

[alphynix]

Island Weirdness #02 -- Europasaurus holgeri

Sauropod dinosaurs are mainly known for being enormous, and so even some of the smallest members of the group were actually quite large compared to modern animals.

Europasaurus was an early brachiosaurid that lived during the Late Jurassic, about 154 million years ago, on a small island in the Lower Saxony region of northwestern Germany. It was an example of insular dwarfism in a sauropod, only growing to around 6.2m in length (~20') -- less than half the size of some of its other relatives.

A layer of rock just above the deposit of Europasaurus fossils also gives us a clue about their eventual fate. Footprints of large carnivorous theropods -- bigger than the mini-sauropods themselves -- suggest that at some point the sea level dropped and predators from the mainland were able to reach the island.

Since there were no large predators on the island before then, the small Europasaurus had no defenses against these new giant invaders. They very likely were literally eaten into extinction.

[saffronsdinosaurart]

Lusotitan sketch

Did you know this thing eats bones. Like Giraffes, they need those special extra nutrients and shit. It's called osteophagia and I think it's metal as fuck.

[saffronsdinosaurart]

Europasaurus sketch

This is a pretty dubious brachiosaurid with a debate over what family it should be put in. Regardless I wanted to draw it anyway as it's smaller and that makes it feel special to me. I also drew a person in too, for scale, but also because I've got to keep practicing drawing people before I forget how. Another notable feature of this dinosaur is it's an example of insular dwarfism, which is responsible for its size as it's so much smaller than it's related family, likely on account of being isolated like dwarf elephants and pygmy hippos.