A Dinosaur Was Discovered To Have The Longest Neck Of Any Animal Ever Discovered

The world of dinosaurs has always been a mystery to each of us. The world of dinosaurs always has mysteries that you may not have known. Are you curious about this animal? Let Dardarkom tell you about dinosaurs with necks longer than giraffes!

When it came to getting difficult-to-reach food, the dinosaur Mamenchisaurus sinocanadorum put its neck out there. According to new research, the late Jurassic Chinese sauropod had the longest neck of any animal ever known, spanning nearly 50ft - or 1.5 times the length of a double-decker bus. The crane-like projection enabled the creature to stand in one place and vacuum up tons of vegetation while using little energy. It was most likely the cause for its enormous body size. The development of giant necks had long perplexed scientists, but new computer scanning revealed that the underlying vertebrae were lightweight and hollow, similar to bird skeletons. They also developed pump-like air sacs to assist the animal's breath in traveling a long distance to the lungs.

Source: SciTechDaily

Prof Paul Barrett, dinosaur expert at the Natural History Museum London, said: “Like all other sauropod dinosaurs, Mamenchisaurus had a complex breathing apparatus that included not only the lungs, but also numerous balloon-like air sacs.

“These were connected to the lungs and windpipe but spread throughout the interior of the animal’s neck, chest and abdomen. Taken in combination, these air sacs had a much greater volume than the lungs, and they even went inside the bones, hollowing them out. This extra space would have helped these gigantic sauropods to move the large volume of air in the lengthy windpipe that would have occupied their extraordinary necks.”

Source: CNN

The sauropod's lower mandible and two vertebrae were linked together. The sauropod's lower mandible and two vertebrae were linked together. The underlying vertebrae were lightweight and hollow, similar to bird skeletons, according to new computer scanning. Mamenchisaurus sinocanadorum, which lived around 162 million years ago, was found in north-west China in 1987.  

Although only a handful of bones from the neck and skull were found, in a new study experts used the most complete skeletons of close relatives to conclude that its neck was nearly 50ft long - the longest of any known dinosaur. 
The experts found that between 69 and 77 per cent of the neck vertebrae were hollow. They also discovered that the dinosaur had 13ft bony extensions on its vertebrae which created overlapping bundles of rods - increasing the stability of its featherweight neck.

Source: TreeHugger

Having a long neck probably also allowed sauropods to shed excess body heat by increasing their surface area, much like the ears of elephants, the team said. Until the latest revelations, Sauroposeidon held the record with a neck that could stretch to around 40ft.

Lead author Dr Andrew Moore, a palaeontologist from Stony Brook University, said: “All sauropods were big, but jaw-droppingly long necks didn’t evolve just once. Mamenchisaurids are important because they pushed the limits on how long a neck can be and were the first lineage of sauropods to do so. With a 15-metre-long neck, it looks like Mamenchisaurus sinocanadorum might be a record-holder - at least until something longer is discovered.”

Source: Time of India

From the Middle Jurassic to the Early Cretaceous, roughly 174 to 114 million years ago, the Mamenchisauridae family roamed East Asia and probably other parts of the world. The ability to reach high food made the species extremely successful, with the sauropod lineage emerging early in dinosaur evolutionary history and persisting until the final days of the Mesozoic, when an asteroid wiped out most dinosaurs except for modern bird relatives. However, despite having the longest neck of any dinosaur, Mamenchisaurus sinocanadorum was not the largest.The findings were reported in the Journal of Systemic Palaeontology. 

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