26/08/2026
Rebbachisaurus was a sauropod, a long-necked, long-tailed heavy-bodied plant-eating dinosaur.
The sauropods comprise the longest, and heaviest, animals to ever have walked the earth, exceeding 80 tons and 130' long. Rebbachisaurus is light for a sauropod dinosaur, weighing around 10 tons and measuring "only" 50' in length. With very tall dorsal neural spines which stood up to 4' tall and either created a tall sail down its back, or they were covered in fat and muscle and made for a strange shaped animal. If the spines weren't covered in fat or muscle then they may have been used for temperature regulation or to attract mates Rebbachisaurus teeth look like pencils. Its nose sat up high on its head, slightly in front of the eyes. The teeth are only in the very front of the mouth. This combination suggests it spent all day pushing its face into foliage, stripping leaves off plants. Rebbachisaurus possessed a long, whiptail, a feature it shared with its cousins Apatosaurus and Diplodocus. The distal tail bones, which look like an adult human's middle finger, often exhibit signs of injury, with many having been broken and re-healed, suggesting the tails were used for defence. Their powerful hips could generate huge forces thus being struck by a whiptail would cause massive amounts of damage upon impact. The tail's tip could, theoretically, have broken the speed of sound like an actual whip does today. This loud "crack" may have been used to communicate, compete with rivals, or to serve as a warning to predators. A recent study has suggested that Rebbachisaurus may have had special bracing in its vertebral column to support an extra-heavy stomach, possibly the first time this interesting feature has been identified in a sauropod.
Our teeth come from the Kem Kem beds just south of Taouz in Morocco.
