Brachiosauridae

[5] The broad distribution of Brachiosauridae in both northern and southern continents suggests that the group originated prior to the breakup of Pangaea.

[7] Evidence for this precision shearing consists of apical wear facets on the teeth and distinctive bone structure that suggests orthal, vertical, jaw action.

[7] They possessed a narrow neck composed of twelve to thirteen extremely long cervical vertebrae that was laterally inflexible and dorsoventrally, vertically, flexible.

[7] Brachiosaurids have more often been found in the conifer-rich sites, like the Tendaguru, than in the Morrison deposits, suggesting that their fitness was increased by the presence of taller conifer food sources.

[7] However, the giant size and long necks of brachiosaurids meant that they required tremendous pressure to bring oxygenated blood to their brains.

[9][1] He published a complete description of the phenotype after examining the humerus, femur, coracoid, and sacrum of the Brachiosaurus holotype that had been prepared at the Field Columbian Museum.

[10] In 1997, Salgado, Coria and Calvo studied the traits that had been used to set the Brachiosauridae apart and determined that they were in fact plesiomorphic, original, for all basal Titanosauriformes.

[1] They concluded that the family Brachiosauridae was actually a "grade" of not specially related primitive titanosauriforms, and not a stable separate clade.

[1] However, in 1998 Sereno & Wilson published data contrary to the conclusions in Salgado et al.'s article, indicating that the Brachiosauridae were a separate clade in the Titanosauriformes.

In 1943, de Lapparent described the "French Bothriospondylus" from the Oxfordian of France which dates to the Late Jurassic, which was identified in 2013 by Philip Mannion as a brachiosaurid[1] and named Vouivria damparisensis in 2017.

Definitive brachiosaurid remains have been found from the Late Jurassic Period to the Early Cretaceous, from about 157 to 100 million years ago.

[3] A second hypothesis is that the apparent lack of geographical diversity is due to sampling bias in the generally poor Early Cretaceous fossil record.

[3] Recently discovered evidence supports the conclusion that brachiosaurids existed outside of North America in lower latitudes of Gondwana in the Early Cretaceous.

[3] In 2013, Mannion et al. reported on the discovery of two isolated teeth found in Lebanon from the Early Cretaceous that possess posteriorly twisted crowns, which are characteristic of the brachiosaurids Giraffatitan and Abydosaurus.

[3] This suggests that brachiosaurids were in fact present outside of North America in the Early Cretaceous, and supports the theory that the apparent lack of specimens is due to an incomplete record.

[11] Brachiosauridae is one of the two major clades of Titanosauriformes, a diverse group of sauropods that existed in the Late Jurassic and Cretaceous in Laurasia and Gondwana.

[12] Europasaurus Giraffatitan Sonorasaurus Brachiosaurus Abydosaurus Cedarosaurus Venenosaurus Lusotitan Cladogram of Brachiosauridae after Mannion et al.

Typical brachiosaurid teeth, i.c. those of Vouivria
Brachiosaurus humerus bone