The Giraffatitan (Giraffatitan brancai) is a large, four-legged sauropod dinosaur in the Brachiosauridae family. Its name means titanic giraffe. It was found in the country that is now Tanzania in Africa.

It lived about 150 million years ago in the Late Jurassic period.

The Giraffatitan walked on four legs, with its front legs longer than its hind (back) legs. The first toe on its front feet, and the first three toes on its hind feet, were clawed. It had a long neck, like a giraffe’s neck. Its tail was also long. It had spatulate, or chisel-shaped, teeth.  

It was a herbivore, because it ate plants.

Up to the 1990s, it was thought to be the largest dinosaur that walked the Earth, but then other larger titanosaurians were found. It measured about 22 metres (74 feet) in length and about 12 metres (39 feet) tall. 

The Giraffatitan is part of an exhibition called “Evolution on the Road to Enlightenment.” The palaeontologist department of the National Museum of Natural History in Paris held the exhibition of dinosaurs from December 2021 to January 2022 in conjuction with the China Light Festival. 

Location of photographs: National Museum of Natural History, Paris, France

Photographer: Martina Nicolls

Martina Nicolls: SIMILAR BUT DIFFERENT IN THE ANIMAL KINGDOM