Brontosaurus was a really huge dinosaur! Let’s discover five brave Brontosaurus facts for kids.
Palaeontologists believe that the Brontosaurus dinosaurs lived for over 100 years. The Brontosaurus lived in the late Jurassic period which was about 156-145 million years ago. The first Brontosaurus fossils were in the USA in the 1870s. The Brontosaurus is often known as the Apatosaurus.
The Brontosaurus was first described by palaeontologists Othniel C. Marsh in 1877. The name Brontosaurus means ‘thunder lizard’. When Marsh first discovered the Brontosaurus fossil he named the short-legged dinosaur the Apatosaurus. Later he discovered the fossil of a much bigger dinosaur and named it Brontosaurus because of its size. Shortly after, scientists realised that the two fossils were actually the same dinosaur and that the second fossil had just grown bigger. This is why this dinosaur now has two names.
The Brontosaurus has a very complex language of communication for both long and short distances. They used whale-like hoots and they also had a specific singing for long-distance communication. They also used their big size very efficiently to communicate. They communicated through stomping signals which were transmitted by ground over short distances. This alarmed other Brontosaurus’ that a predator was around.
Due to the massive size of this dinosaur, it was expected that these dinosaurs might have had a slow speed of moving. However, the opposite is true, the Brontosaurus could reach a speed of between 12 and 18 mph. The Brontosaurus was roughly 72 ft in length and 80.3 ft in height. The dinosaur could weigh from 14 to 17 tonnes, which is the equivalent to about 3 elephants. Its neck could reach up to and over 19 ft in length. The Brontosaurus was not an aggressive dinosaur even though it was huge. They did not attack other predators but they would define themselves with their big tail, which could cause severe damage to their opponent.
During the Jurassic period, many of the largest of dinosaurs were actually herbivores meaning they ate plants and trees. You would think because of their size they could eat anything they wished but most of these gentle giants opted for the vegetarian diet. The Brontosaurus used to eat leaves from forests and marshy areas. Because of their very long necks, they could even eat leaves off of trees which were very high. This gave them more choice of vegetation. They also ate ferns, grasses, shrubs, leaves, herbs, and flowers.
We hope you enjoyed learning more things about Brontosaurus as much as we loved teaching you about them. Now that you know how majestic this dinosaur is, you can move on to learn about other dinosaurs like: Albertosaurus, Brachiosaurus, Triceratops, Compsognathus, Spinosaurus, Velociraptor, Archaeopteryx and Apatosaurus.
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