Genus
Valid Extinct

Giraffatitan

(Paul 1988)
Etymology Titan girafe

Giraffatitan is a genus of sauropod dinosaur that lived during the late Jurassic Period in what is now Lindi Region, Tanzania. Only one species is known, G. brancai, named in honor of German paleontologist Wilhelm von Branca, who was a driving force behind the expedition that discovered it in the Tendaguru Formation. Giraffatitan brancai was originally described by German paleontologist Werner Janensch as a species of the North American sauropod Brachiosaurus from the Morrison Formation, as Brachiosaurus brancai. Recent research shows that the differences between the type species of Brachiosaurus and the Tendaguru material are so large that the African material should be placed in a separate genus.

Temporal range
Triassic
Jurassic
Cretaceous
Paleogene
Neogene
252 201 145 66 0 Ma
PBDB occurrences
42
Group
Dinosaures
Herbivore Ground dwelling, gregarious Terrestrial
Giraffatitan
click to enlarge
Museum für Naturkunde © Shadowgate from Novara, ITALY · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia
PBDB Wikipedia
Classification
Dinosauria Unranked clade
Saurischia Unranked clade
Sauropodomorpha Unranked clade
Massopoda Unranked clade
Sauropodiformes Unranked clade
Sauropoda Unranked clade
Gravisauria Unranked clade
Eusauropoda Unranked clade
Neosauropoda Unranked clade
Macronaria Unranked clade
Titanosauriformes Unranked clade
Brachiosauridae Family
Giraffatitan Genus
Fossil sites 42 geolocated sites
Distribution
Top countries
🇹🇿 Tanzania
42
Geological formations
Temporal distribution
Tithonian (149.2–143.1 Ma)
36
Kimmeridgian (154.8–149.2 Ma)
4
Oxfordian (161.5–154.8 Ma)
2
Species (3)
Brachiosaurus (Giraffatitan) brancai
Brachiosaurus fraasi subjective synonym of Giraffatitan brancai 162 Ma
Giraffatitan brancai 162 Ma
Images 5
Bibliography
Original description
G. S. Paul. 1988. The brachiosaur giants of the Morrison and Tendaguru with a description of a new subgenus, Giraffatitan, and a comparison of the world's largest dinosaurs. Hunteria 2(3):1-14
Bibliography (6)
W.-D. Heinrich. 1999. The taphonomy of dinosaurs from the Upper Jurassic of Tendaguru (Tanzania) based on field sketches of the German Tendaguru Expedition (1909-1913). Mitteilungen aus dem Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin, Geowissenschaften Reihe 28:25-61 DOI ↗
W. Janensch. 1961. Die Gliedmaszen und Gliedmaszengürtel der Sauropoden der Tendaguru-Schichten [The limbs and limb girdles of the sauropods of the Tendaguru Beds]. Palaeontographica, Supplement VII (1) 3(4):177-235
W. Janensch. 1950. Die Wirbelsäule von Brachiosaurus brancai [The vertebral column of Brachiosaurus brancai]. Palaeontographica, Supplement VII (1) 3(2):31-93
W. Janensch. 1935. Die Schädel der Sauropoden Brachiosaurus, Barosaurus und Dicraeosaurus aus den Tendaguru-schichten Deutsch-Ostafrikas [The skulls of the sauropods Brachiosaurus, Barosaurus and Dicraeosaurus from the Tendaguru Beds of German East Africa]. Palaeontographica, Supplement VII (1) 2(1):145-298
W. Janensch. 1929. Material und Formegehalt der Sauropoden in der Ausbeute der Tendaguru-Expedition, 1909-1912 [Material and figured content of sauropods in the yield of the Tendaguru Expedition, 1909-1912]. Palaeontographica, Supplement VII (1) 2(1):3-34
W. Janensch. 1914. Übersicht über die Wirbeltierfauna der Tendaguru-Schichten [Overview of the vertebrate fauna of the Tendaguru beds]. Archiv für Biontologie 3:81-110