Brontosaurus: No measured body size data available to draw at scale.
- · Grid units represent actual meters (m); human and animals are drawn to the exact same scale with original silhouette aspect ratios preserved.
- · When a size range is recorded (e.g. 1–1.6m), the lower bound is used for scale comparison.
- · Human silhouette: PhyloPic — NASA · Public Domain Mark 1.0
Brontosaurus
Brontosaurus excelsus (Brontosaurus · Brontosaurus)
Known only from fossils. The IUCN Red List assesses only species extant since 1500 CE, so fossil taxa are not assigned a category.
💡 Everyday Comparisons for Size, Mass & Speed
- 💡 A Brontosaurus excelsus skeleton is displayed in the center of Burke Hall at the Yale Peabody Museum.
- 💡 Brontosaurus was once merged into Apatosaurus, but a 2015 analysis recognized it as a valid separate genus.
Reference standards: coach bus ~12 m, mid-size car ~4.9 m, compact car ~1 t, basketball hoop 3.05 m, credit card 8.56 cm.
📖 1. Overview
Brontosaurus excelsus (genus Brontosaurus) was a giant herbivorous sauropod in the family Diplodocidae that lived in North America during the Late Jurassic. The holotype specimen (YPM 1980) came from Reed's Quarry in Albany County, Wyoming, USA.
🦴 2. Anatomy & Morphology
The holotype is one of the best-preserved specimens among diplodocids and is the skeleton for which Marsh first published a full-body reconstruction in 1883. Many parts were restored before it was mounted at the Yale Peabody Museum.
🔍 3. Fossil Record & Paleoecology
The Natural History Museum in London explains that unlike Brachiosaurus, which ate leaves from tall trees, it fed on low-growing plants close to the ground. In 1903 Riggs regarded it as the same animal as Apatosaurus, but an analysis by Tschopp and colleagues in 2015 concluded that it is a valid separate genus.
🇰🇷 4. Connection to Korea
No direct record connecting this species to Korea has been found.
📚 Sources & References
- • Fossil taxon — the IUCN Red List assesses only species living or extinct since 1500
- • paleobiodb.org — basicTaxonInfo
- • wikidata.org — Q52057191
- • commons.wikimedia.org — File:Yale brontosaurus.jpg
- • pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov — PMC4393826
- • peabody.yale.edu — burke-hall-dinosaurs
- • peabody.yale.edu — vertebrate-paleontology
- • nhm.ac.uk — brachiosaurus.html
- • nhm.ac.uk — apatosaurus.html
- • Silhouette: PhyloPic — artrociraptor · CC0 1.0
Recorded dimensions are widely cited representative estimates from public literature and may vary by study or specimen.