We’ve been hinting about it for ages, coyly writing “Brachiosaurus” brancai in quotes and muttering darkly about things not being how we all tend to assume … now, finally, the paper is out.
The paper
Taylor, Michael P. 2009. A re-evaluation of Brachiosaurus altithorax Riggs 1903 (Dinosauria, Sauropoda) and its generic separation from Giraffatitan brancai (Janensch 1914). Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 29(3):787-806.
… and its very unexciting nomenclatural correction in in Journal of Vertebrae Paleontology 31(3):727
Unofficial supplementary information online
The Nexus file and full-resolution figures.
Sauropod Vertebra Picture of the Week 
December 29, 2009 at 5:33 pm
Hi could you please have a look at the following vertebra http://www.christraxon.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/Vertid.htm and tell me what it might be from. I thought it might be Pliosaur but have been informed that id is not so i am now a little confused. It is from the Kimmeridge clay if East Yorkshire, and measures 2.5″ x 2.5″ x 2.5″.
many thanks
Chris
December 31, 2009 at 1:04 am
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January 25, 2010 at 2:09 pm
[…] 25, 2010 In no-long-quite-so-recent paper on Brachiosaurus and Giraffatitan, I gave as one of the autapomorphies of Brachiosaurus proper that the […]
February 26, 2010 at 2:36 am
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February 27, 2010 at 12:14 am
[…] of the few sauropods I am in anyway familiar with is Giraffatitan (formerly Brachiosaurus) and as a result I have developed more of an interest in the brachiosaurs […]
March 31, 2010 at 5:04 pm
[…] change without warning at any time. [The Brachiosaurus altithorax reconstruction above is from this paper. White bones are ones that we know are definitely from that species; light grey probably are; […]
October 11, 2010 at 4:59 pm
[…] Sauropoda) and its generic separation from Giraffatitan brancai (Janensch 1914) — published in […]
October 15, 2010 at 11:26 pm
[…] “The giant Brachiosaurus finds of the Germans” are now, of course, Giraffatitan. […]
July 6, 2011 at 11:46 am
[…] my Brachiosaurus/Giraffatitan paper (Taylor 2009a), though, I subverted the usual structure by postponing the Systematic Palaeontology […]
April 15, 2012 at 3:34 pm
[…] Start with an existing matrix, add constraints, re-run it, and see how the tree-length changes. Since I am familiar with it, I started with the matrix from my 2009 paper on brachiosaurs. […]
April 26, 2012 at 7:21 am
[…] for once this really is Brachiosaurus and not Giraffatitan. Quite some time ago I put out a call for photos I could use on the Musings to help provide […]
September 12, 2012 at 9:07 pm
[…] Tanzania. If you want to know why this animal is named Giraffatitan and not Brachiosaurus, here‘s your […]
February 19, 2013 at 10:16 am
[…] 1 (the sauropod-history review) was in the Geological Society dinosaur-history volume; chapter 2 (the Brachiosaurus revision) was in JVP; chapter 3 (the Xenoposeidon description) was in Palaeontology; chapter 4 (the […]
December 13, 2013 at 7:53 pm
[…] next most-cited paper, the Brachiosaurus revision (Taylor 2009), is in the Journal of Vertebrate Palaeontology – unquestionably the flagship […]
January 27, 2014 at 9:38 am
[…] brancai is not Brachiosaurus“. (This of course was drawn from the work that became my subsequent paper on that subject, Taylor 2009) And as I was going through my photos to prepare the slides of that talk, I thought to […]
June 2, 2014 at 10:10 am
[…] House next autumn. I’ve been writing about [Brachiosaurus and Giraffatitan], and have read your 2009 study vindicating the proposal to separate them into two genera. […] I know you consider Brachiosaurus […]
June 5, 2014 at 9:11 am
[…] in 2008, when I did the GDI of Giraffatitan and Brachiosaurus for my 2009 paper on those genera, I came out with estimates of 28688 and 23337 kg respectively. At the time I said […]
June 9, 2014 at 10:12 am
[…] mass estimates for the single specimen BM.R.2181 (formerly known as HMN SII), the paralectotype of Giraffatitan brancai, which is the basis of the awesome mounted skeleton in […]
September 11, 2014 at 12:31 am
[…] body breaks down among its constituent parts in Plateosaurus (from this post), Giraffatitan (from Taylor 2009), and Dreadnoughtus (based on my “tall neck and tail” GDI). Dreadnoughtus seems to have […]
November 14, 2014 at 9:07 am
[…] provisionally accepted USNM 5730 as belonging to Brachiosaurus in my re-evaluation of 2009, and included it in my reconstruction (Taylor 2009:fig. […]
July 8, 2015 at 9:12 pm
[…] open access journals — and no, a hybrid OA option doesn’t cut it. I’m glad to have that notch on my bedpost, but I don’t feel any need to go back […]
October 1, 2022 at 8:42 am
[…] specimen that it’s from is now recognised as belonging to the separate brachiosaurid genus Giraffatitan, and it’s the paralectotype of the species Giraffatitan […]