Brachiosaurs
Brachiosaurus.
Brachiosaurus, or "arm lizard" was first discovered in Grand River Canyon, Colorado in 1903 by Elmer S. Riggs and has become one of the most famous and easily recognized Dinosaurs of all time. At 82 feet long from head to tail and 43 feet tall, Brachiosaurus is one of the largest Sauropod's to ever exist and certainly one of the largest animals. Brachiosaurus is unique in that not only is it built more erect like a Giraffe, but also that it's front legs are longer than it's hind legs. Being so tall was an advantage for a herbivore since it would allow it to reach high into the trees to eat and also granted it an advantageous view. To give a sense of how massive Brachiosaurus was, it's neck vertebrae were each 1 meter long (3.3 feet), and it's upper leg bone (Humerus) was 7 feet long. In fact it's footprints were large enough for a child to bathe in.
Brachiosaurus is estimated to have weighed almost 30 tons, making it among the heaviest animal's to ever live as well. It has been estimated that if Brachiosaurus were warm blooded, It would have taken 10 years to reach full size, yet the dietary requirements would have been quite large, estimated at 400-800lbs of food per day, possibly twice as much as an adult African elephant.
For many decades it was thought that Brachiosaurus used the nostrils on top of it's head as a snorkel system while staying submerged in water much of it's time. Many scientists now disagree with this . Many scientists now believe that Sauropod's lived on plains instead of spending much time in the water, however, it is impossible to actually know any or at least all of an animals habits from the fossil record alone. However many findings indeed support sauropods being aquatic, though Brachiosaurids may or may not have been. As an interesting note, the Sauropod Dinosaur of the Congo, Mokele Mbembe, is said to lives in the swamps and rarely leaves the water except to move to different areas of the swamp or river, eat Malambo plants on shore, and breed.
Such an amazing and specialized creature defies the notion of gradual happenstance evolution from one form of organism to another as such specialized physiology and habits could not possibly arise by accident and without preexisting genetic information. So much design points to a clear need for a designer. For many this designer is easily identified as the God of the Bible whom tells us that He made all creatures great and small during creation week. Scripture tells us that God made all creatures. And if He indeed did make Brachiosaurs like He made other animals we would expect them to be beautifully designed, and that is jsut what Brachiosaurus, and all other organisms show us. His infinite wisdom and love.
Sauroposeidon.
Sauroposeidon was possibly the largest Brachiosaurid Sauropod to have ever lived, at least since so far there haven't been any found that outclass it. It's name is greek for "Earthquake God Lizard", testifying to it's immense size and weight. It is also a reference to the Greek god Poseidon. Sauroposeidon is believed to have lived 112 million years ago during the early Cretaceous period. This is of course based on the Evolutionary belief of history.
Th first fossil remains of Sauroposeidon were discovered in southeast Oklahoma in 1994 and were originally believed to be petrified wood due to their size. They were found to be fossil remains of a dinosaur's vertebrae in 1999 and since have been somewhat popular because of the animal's size. In fact the vertebrae are among some of the largest of any animal known, at a maximum length of 4.6 feet long for some. A fully grown Sauroposeidon could reach 60 feet tall (from it's head to the ground), 112 feet long (from tip of tail to tip of nose, running along the back of the body), and around 66 tons in estimated weight. This would definitely place Sauroposeidon at the top of the Brachiosaurid size charts and in the top 6 Sauropods in terms of size. Like other Brachiosaurids, it's front legs were longer than it's hind legs, similar to the build of a Giraffe. This vertical posture would have meant that they could have fed on the highest vegetation that would be out of reach for other creatures.
*This photo of a toy Sauroposeidon shows the size relation to a full grown modern day human.
It's large size has caused some, including it's discoverer, to proclaim it to be the largest terrestrial animal to ever live, and while it is certainly a Behemoth (in more ways than one) it is by no means the largest land animal ever, there are several Sauropod's that grew to be larger, namely Amphicoelias, which grew to almost twice as large overall. Sauroposeidon's bones were filled with many small air cells in a honeycomb-like appearance, making their bones lighter yet maintaining the strength of bones that are even more solid. This means that while the bones were lighter in order to move them more easily( especially that unreal neck!), they were perfectly able to support the animals muscle, fat, organs, etc. It is also of interest that while a full skeleton hasn't been assembled, the rest of the "gaps" have been filled in by extrapolations. It is an interesting fact that Sauroposeidon's neck was up to at least 40 feet long, meaning that it's neck was responsible for 2/3 of it's height! This also means that if you were on the 6th floor of a building an adult Sauroposeidon could look in at wink at you without much effort. And if it reared up on it's hind legs it could have potentially seen into the 8th story! That's one amazing animal.
Being a vegetarian and a large reptile, it probably spent much of it's time near or even in water, both helping support it's weight and provide many sources of food both in trees and in or under the water. An animal as large as Sauroposeidon would have to have ingested a large amount of food everyday, and the fact that were must have been thousands upon thousands of them means that there was a lot of vegetation being consumed in the areas they lived in. This was probably made up for by being cold blooded reptiles that have slower metabolisms than many other animals, similar to how Elephants have very low metabolisms and heart rates. It has also been found that to keep from using copius amounts of energy and having to consume even more food, Sauropod's apparently stayed standing in one place and simply moved their necks around to gather food in their small area, thereby reaching giant sizes, yet not still being cold blooded animals that didn't require nearly as much food/energy as a same sized warm blooded animal would. It seems as if Sauropod's like Sauroposeidon and all the rest were perfectly designed to meet their needs, they could grow larger than other animals yet not have to use as much energy as creatures much smaller. This ingenious theme of design can be seen in all of nature which is what one would expect if it was all the result of an infintely intelligent and loving God like the Bible states. By all means, please look into it and you will see what I mean.