Giraffatitan brancai

Uncredited · via Wikidata/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.
On record
Recorded, not inferred- Sits inside
- GiraffatitanPBDB
- Diet
- herbivorePBDB, for Sauropoda
- Life habit
- ground dwelling, gregariousPBDB, for Sauropoda
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Sauropoda
- Environment
- terrestrialPBDB, for Sauropoda
Time the record covers
At least 5.6 million years on record.
The record covers at least 154.8 Mya to 149.2 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 161.5 Mya to 143.1 Mya.
42 occurrences of Giraffatitan brancai on record, most of them in the Late Jurassic. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.
When
42 occurrences- Late Jurassic100%
These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.
Found in
1 formation
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The named rock units Giraffatitan brancai has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.
Giraffatitan brancai and its relatives
Late JurassicWhere Giraffatitan brancai and its relatives were recorded in the Late Jurassic.
Found in the same rock
44 taxa- Sauropoda14 sites
- Kentrosaurus aethiopicus13 sites
- Dicraeosaurus sattleri5 sites
- Theropoda5 sites
- Dicraeosaurus hansemanni4 sites
- Coelurosauria3 sites
- Diplodocinae3 sites
- Tornieria africana3 sites
- Ceratosauridae2 sites
- Diplodocidae2 sites
- Diplodocoidea2 sites
- Elaphrosaurus bambergi2 sites
- Eusauropoda2 sites
- Flagellicaudata2 sites
- Lepidotes2 sites
- Pterosauria2 sites
- Tetanurae2 sites
- Abelisauridae1 site
- Abelisauroidea1 site
- Actinopterygii1 site
- Australodocus bohetii1 site
- Belemnoida1 site
- Bernissartia1 site
- Brachiosaurus1 site
The Paleobiology Database records 42 sites for Giraffatitan brancai, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.
This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.
Entered from
6 references- Die Gliedmaszen und Gliedmaszengürtel der Sauropoden der Tendaguru-Schichten [The limbs and limb girdles of the sauropods of the Tendaguru Beds]23
- 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]9
- The taphonomy of dinosaurs from the Upper Jurassic of Tendaguru (Tanzania) based on field sketches of the German Tendaguru Expedition (1909-1913)5
- 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]2
- Übersicht über die Wirbeltierfauna der Tendaguru-Schichten [Overview of the vertebrate fauna of the Tendaguru beds]2
- Die Wirbelsäule von Brachiosaurus brancai [The vertebral column of Brachiosaurus brancai]1
Each of the 42 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.
Media and terms
Media content3

Picture of Giraffatitan brancai
- Source
- Wikidata/Commons
- Credit
- nobody named on the record
- Licence
- not stated by the source
- Commercial use
- cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Photogrammetry
- Source
- MorphoSource
- Licence
- not stated by the source
- Commercial use
- cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
- Specimen
- Giraffatitan brancai · zmb:MB R:2921
3D model
- Source
- Sketchfab
- Credit
- Gabriel.Braga
- Licence
- CC Attribution
- Commercial use
- cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.
This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.
Keep going
What may have been alongside itGiraffatitan through timeFormations of the Late JurassicThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Janensch 1914)