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Mamenchisaurus Sinocanadorum

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science2 years ago

Mamenchisaurus sinocanadorum: The Dinosaur with the Longest Neck on Record

Paleontologists have discovered the remains of a dinosaur, Mamenchisaurus sinocanadorum, in northwest China that had a neck eight times as long as a giraffe's, making it the "longest-known neck in the animal kingdom." The sauropod had a 50-foot-long neck, about 10 feet longer than a typical bus, and its vertebrae were largely hollow, with 69% to 77% made up of "empty space." The long neck allowed sauropods to eat vegetation out of reach of other dinosaurs while conserving energy by remaining in one spot.

paleontology2 years ago

Record-breaking dinosaur had neck longer than a school bus and weighed 70 tonnes.

The longest-necked dinosaur on record, Mamenchisaurus sinocanadorum, had a 49.5-foot-long neck, more than six times the length of a giraffe's neck and about 10 feet longer than a school bus. The sauropod lived about 162 million years ago during the Jurassic period in what is now the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of northwestern China. The dinosaur evolved to keep its tremendous neck lightweight but sturdy, with air making up as much as 77% of the vertebrae's volume. The long neck would have made the animal an efficient forager, able to graze on the huge volumes of browse necessary to fuel such a huge body before moving to the next vegetation-rich spot.