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Small long neck dinosaur


Mini Longneck Dino Discovered in South America

An artist's vision of <i>L. laticauda</i>, a new sauropod dinosaur, battling predators in the early Cretaceous. (Image credit: Jorge A. González )

A long-neck relative of Apatosaurus and Diplodocus has been discovered in South America, becoming the first of its kind ever found on that continent.

Discovered in rock from the Early Cretaceous Period about 140 million years ago, the new dinosaur lived later than its relatives found in Africa, Europe and North America, which hail from the Jurassic, the period before the Cretaceous. At about 30 feet (9 meters) long, the new long-neck is also a relative pipsqueak. Other dinosaurs in this group — the diplodocids — are more than 66 feet (20 m) long, said study researcher Pablo Gallina, a paleontologist at the Universidad Maimonides in Buenos Aires.

"This may be the smallest of the diplodocids," Gallina told Live Science. [Paleo-Art Gallery: Amazing Dinosaur Illustrations]

Last of the diplodocids

The fossil site in Patagonia where the new dinosaur was discovered. (Image credit: Pablo A. Gallina)

Gallina and his collagues excavated the fossil during three trips to Patagonia in 2010, 2012 and 2013. The fossil site is in Argentina's Neuque´n province, where the landscape is dry and scrubby, with reddish dirt hills. In the Early Cretaceous, the environment would have been semi-arid, bordering a large desert on the supercontinent of Gondwana, Gallina said.

The skeleton is fragmentary, but the researchers were able to use the shape of the animal's vertebrae to determine that it was a new species. They dubbed the dinosaur  Leinkupal laticauda. In the language of the native Mapuche people of Patagonia, "lein" means "vanishing," and "kupal" means "family." The researchers chose this name because previously discovered diplodocid relatives come from the Jurassic, meaning L. laticauda may have been among the last of its line.

The second part of the dinosaur's name has meaning, as well. "Lati" comes from the Latin for "wide," and "cauda" from the Latin for "tail. " The vertebrae suggest that L. laticauda had a very broad, muscular tail, which may have allowed it "remarkable control and fortitude," Gallina said.

Unique discovery

Diplodocids are famed for their long necks and long tails; the earliest discovered specimens came from the rich Jurassic fossil beds in Colorado. They had also been discovered in Africa, which led paleontologists to suspect they lived in South America as well. At the time this group of dinosaurs lived, the two continents were combined into one, called Gondwana.

Previous Patagonian fossil finds came from the upper, or Late Cretaceous, about 100 million to 66 million years ago. L. laticauda is the first dinosaur ever found in the region from the Early Cretaceous, Gallina said.

When the bones were first discovered in 2010, they looked unpromising and damaged by erosion. But the paleontologists could find no other bones to excavate, so they began the process of digging out the skeletal fragments. It wasn't until the bones were out of the ground that the researchers began to realize they had something unique on their hands, Gallina said.

The researchers report their findings today (May 14) in the open-access journal PLOS ONE.

Follow Stephanie Pappas on Twitter and Google+. Follow us @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science.

Stephanie Pappas is a contributing writer for Live Science, covering topics ranging from geoscience to archaeology to the human brain and behavior. She was previously a senior writer for Live Science but is now a freelancer based in Denver, Colorado, and regularly contributes to Scientific American and The Monitor, the monthly magazine of the American Psychological Association. Stephanie received a bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of South Carolina and a graduate certificate in science communication from the University of California, Santa Cruz.  

A Fun Guide To Long Neck Dinosaurs [With 10 Dino Names]

Source by: Herschel Hoffmeyer

Dinosaurs with long necks are officially known as sauropods. They’re a kind of herbivorous dinosaur that have these distinguishing characteristics:

  • small heads
  • long tails
  • long necks
  • large bodies
  • thick legs.

They were the giants upon whose shoulders other creatures would have stood. And that’s why they also reached the heights of human imagination — and captured it.

Do famous species like the Brontosaurus, Brachiosaurus, and Argentinosaurus ring a bell? From stars in pop culture’s media to impressive dinosaur costumes at parties, these long-necked creatures are always the talk of the town.

Here’s a short but sweet guide for all you need to know about the sauropod family. You’ll find a list of famous long-necked dinosaurs too! Let’s jump right in.

Here we go!

What Are Long Neck Dinosaur Names?

Source by: Dotted Yeti

There are plenty of long-neck dinosaur types that flourished during the Mesozoic Era several million years ago. You’ll discover diverse kinds of sauropods in the list below. Let’s get to know them together!

#1 Amargasaurus

Source by: ArtStation

The La Amarga lizard is one of a kind sauropod because it’s a long-neck dinosaur with spikes. Though it had a short neck compared to most sauropods, this Early Cretaceous dinosaur’s still a force to reckon with. Paleontologists suggest it may have used its neck spines as a defensive strategy against enemies.

#2 Alamosaurus

Source by: Louis Tanner

Did you know the Ojo Alamo lizard is the largest sauropod to be identified from North America? This huge long-necked dinosaur weighed around 72.6 metric tons and was as tall as 98 feet. It also had long thick legs to support its large body.

The Alamosaurus lived during the Late Cretaceous period in what is now the Ojo Alamo Formation of New Mexico.

#3 Apatosaurus

Source by: Only Dinosaurs

Did you know that the Apatosaurus was one of the most common sauropod dinosaurs back in their day? These sauropods flourished in the United State’s Morrison Formation, New Mexico.

They lived around 152 million years ago during the Late Jurassic period.   What makes the Apatosaurus different is its neck vertebrae. The Apatosaurus has stouter ones which make its neck look wider and deeper.

#4 Argentinosaurus

Source by: Quora

Here’s a fun fact: the Argentinosaurus is one of the world’s largest species of long neck dinosaurs according to the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH).  This gigantic Late Cretaceous dinosaur discovered in Argentina reached a whopping 180,000 pounds! Add to that its total length of 130 feet and you’ve got an incredible dinosaur in your hands.

#5 Brachiosaurus

Source by Only Dinosaurs

What’s in a name? Paleontologist Elmer Riggs named the curious-looking fossil he found in the Colorado River “Brachiosaurus Altithorax” because of its very long arms and cavernous chest. The fossils he found are also the most complete specimen to date.

  • Brachiosaurus – arm lizard
  • Altithorax – deep chest

Because the arm lizard’s forelimbs were longer than its hind limbs, this gave the Jurassic period sauropod an inclined posture and trunk. It also has a short tail compared to other long-necked dinosaurs.

#6 Brontosaurus

Source by: Scott Robert Anselmo

The Brontosaurus excelsus lived up to its name when it was first introduced to the public in 1905 by the AMNH. The “thunder lizard” captured everyone’s imagination with over 72 feet of amazing dinosaur bones from head to tail supported by sturdy legs. Its hind legs may have been used to support the Brontosaurus’s body when it reached for food as it grasped onto trees.

#7 Camarasaurus

Source by: Reddit

Dinosaur fossils that were neighbors to the Apatosaurus in the Morrison Formation are those of the Camarasaurus. The Camarasaurus lived during the Late Jurassic 155 million years ago.

The “chambered lizard” got its name from the hollow chambers scientists found in the dinosaur’s cervical vertebrae. These hollow chambers were air sacs that helped the dinosaur’s body save weight.

#8 Diplodocus

Source by: Fred Wierum

Have you ever wondered how the Diplodocus got its name? This famous dinosaur got its name from the double beam structure of its chevron bones. Paleontologists suggest these two functions:

  • This helped the Diplodocus support its tail vertebrae.
  • This helped the dinosaur keep its whip-like tail from crushing its blood vessels when it rested on the ground.

#9 Euhelopus

Source by: DeviantArt

Dinosaur names are often inspired by their anatomical features and habitat like the Euhelopus zdanskyi.

  • This sauropod’s name was inspired by its feet that looked like Swedish shoes called
  • Its name also describes the place where the dinosaur was discovered — a marsh.
  • Zdansky is the surname of the Austrian student who first found its fossils in 1923.

#10 Patagotitan

Source by: DeviantArt

The Patagotitan, like the Argentinosaurus, belongs to the Titanosaurs. They’re a group of animals made of the world’s largest animals to have ever existed.

This Argentine dinosaur had a very long neck that gave it an amazing estimated length of 102 feet. It lived in the Late Cretaceous period 102 million years ago.

Frequently Asked Questions About Sauropods

Source by Only Dinosaurs

Here we answer questions about these dinosaurs that people are most curious about. Check them out below.

Are All Long Neck Dinosaurs Herbivores?

Yes, sauropods are herbivores. Scientists suggest that these plant-eaters from the Late Jurassic period to Cretaceous periods swallowed stones (gastroliths) to help them digest plant food.

When and Where Did Long Neck Dinosaurs Live?

Dinosaurs with long necks lived from the Early Jurassic up to the Late Cretaceous period. That’s around 201 to 66 million years ago. Sauropods are known to have lived all over the world. Fossil specimens have been found even in Antarctica.

Source by: Science

What Type of Dinosaur Has the Longest Neck?

The winner according to the Guinness World Records is the Sauroposeidon species. These dinosaurs had extremely long necks that were over 55 feet!

Is a Brachiosaurus a Herbivore?

The Brachiosaurus was a long-neck dinosaur that fed on high-growing plants like conifers and cycads. It may have eaten plants that were at around 16 feet above the ground.

Are Brachiosaurus and Brontosaurus the Same?

No, the Brachiosaurus and Brontosaurus are completely different dinosaurs though they’re closely related. An easy to identify trait is how the Brachiosaurus is more elephant-like in posture while the Brontosaurus is more giraffe-like.

Long Neck Dinosaurs: Standing Out in the Mesozoic Era

Source by: Daniel

Sauropods are truly a fascinating group of animals. They’ve also taught us a lot about life in prehistoric times from their diet, behavior, and anatomical features.

And there’s plenty more to learn in the future! Sauropod dinosaur puppets are effective teaching aids to pass on this knowledge to new audiences and the next generation.

See you at our next blog post!

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Dinosaurs with a long neck: varieties, description, habitat

It is difficult to study something that has not been there for a long time, but this does not mean that it is not interesting! For example, what do you know about dinosaurs? When do you think dinosaurs with long necks lived? What were they called, what kind of life did they lead?

"Long-necked Animal"

An old children's song is about a giraffe, but today you will get acquainted with the life of a much more ancient representative of the animal world. Let's talk about a group of four-legged herbivorous dinosaurs. More precisely, our today's heroes are dinosaurs with a long neck that lived in the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. This group of animals was called "sauropods", which means "lizard-footed dinosaurs" in Latin.

Despite the fact that sauropods are completely extinct, scientists were able to determine that these animals lived everywhere, there were at least 130 species, which were divided into 13 families and 70 genera.

General description of the species

Herbivorous dinosaur with a long neck had a gigantic size. The neck of the animal could be from 9 to 11 m long, but the head is quite small. A tiny brain was placed in a tiny cranium. It was found that the sacral brain of the animal was 20 times larger than the head. The teeth of these dinosaurs were spatula-shaped, rather small in size. Despite the name, the legs of the animals bore no resemblance to the legs of lizards. Rather, there was a resemblance to the legs of elephants. The forelimbs were always longer than the hind limbs. All of them had massive tails.

As you can imagine, long-necked dinosaurs don't live in the neighboring zoo. All data on these animals were painstakingly restored by paleontologists from the remains found. The rarest find for scientists is the skull of a sauropod. This part of the skeleton is rarely found during excavations, and it does not come across as a whole at all.

Lifestyle

Long-necked dinosaurs can be considered phytophages. This means that they ate plant foods. Paleontologists have suggested that they did not chew plants, but ground them with the help of swallowed stones.

The simplest assumption is that sauropods used their necks to reach high treetops. But this theory is criticized by scientists, because they calculated what the blood pressure of the animal had to be in order to be able to perform such actions. Calculations show that this would require an unreasonably high energy consumption. In addition, the animal must have had a very large heart.

Another hypothesis is that sauropods led a herd life. It is based on the fact that paleontologists most often find a group of remains.

Long-necked dinosaurs are believed to have been very slow. Presumably they moved at a speed of no higher than 5 km / h. This is associated with the weight and size of the animal.

Description of individual species. Diplodocus

Diplodocus is the most famous dinosaur with a long neck. This genus received its name from the American paleontologist C. Marsh back in 1878. The name itself reflected the structural features of the tail of the animal.

Diplodocus has long been considered a real giant even among dinosaurs. According to the calculations of one of the scientists, its dimensions could exceed 54 m, and its weight could reach 113 tons. But he made a mistake in the number of vertebrae, and the real dimensions turned out to be much smaller. The largest remains confirmed the length of 35 m. The weight has not yet been accurately calculated, presumably it is from 20 to 80 tons.

The remains of diplodocus were found quite often, due to which this species is considered the most studied. The London Natural History Museum has a copy of the Diplodocus skeleton. So a photo of dinosaurs with a long neck can be taken there.

Brachiosaurus

At the end of the Jurassic, another sauropod lived, called the brachiosaurus. It can be translated as "shouldered lizard". This animal lived in the territories where North America and Africa are located today.

Brachiosaurus, like all sauropods, had a small head. But it was adorned with a bone crest just above the eyes. Presumably, the nostrils connected by an air sac were placed on the crest. Maybe even the lizard had a small trunk. The front legs were much longer than the hind legs, and in general the view was very reminiscent of a huge giraffe. Only the neck was not stretched upward, but moved forward by about 45 °.

The height of this animal has not been precisely established. Presumably - 11-15 m. And the length from the head to the tip of the tail - 22-27 m. Weight - within 22-60 tons.

The skeleton of this dinosaur is on display at the Humboldt Museum in Berlin.

a huge herbivorous dinosaur with a long neck.:::Diplodocus. Site about animals. PiLife

Section: Amphibians / Reptiles.
Neck length: 7-8 m.
Tail length: 13-14 m.
Weight: 10 t.
Reproduction: oviparous.
Diet: leaves of cycads, conifers.
Latin name: Diplodocus longus.


Description of diplodocus.

Diplodocus is one of the largest terrestrial inhabitants of our planet. Marching majestically on its columned legs, this herbivorous giant roamed the forests and savannahs in search of food.


Systematics (scientific classification) of diplodocus. Diplodocus longus.

Habitat.


Diplodocus habitat - lived in North America.

Like all terrestrial dinosaurs, Diplodocus were egg-laying animals. Information about the mating habits of these lizards is very scarce. After mating, the female dug a nest in the ground and laid her eggs in it. The huge mass of the body did not allow her to sit down, and during the laying of eggs, she could only slightly bend her hind legs. According to some paleontologists, female sauropods developed a special organ that performed the same functions as the ovipositor in insects. At the most crucial moment, a leathery tube protruded from the female's cloaca, along which the eggs rolled out and softly flopped to the ground. This device made it possible to protect the shell from damage and preserve offspring. Having completed the laying, the female buried the nest and left to graze, and when it was time for the cubs to be born, the adult lizards returned to their nests. Unlike adult diplodocus, many cubs became the prey of predators, and only those who hatched in the presence of older relatives or managed to hide in the thickets to wait for the herd to return had a chance of survival.


In the past, scientists considered sauropods to be amphibious lizards, not considering that such giants would hopelessly bog down in marshy ground. According to modern paleontologists, sauropods inhabited places with hard ground and rich vegetation.

In the Jurassic period, the ancient pro-continent of Pangea began to fall apart. In those days, a warm and humid climate reigned throughout the Earth; it was colder only in the polar regions, but there were no permanent ice at the poles. In the subtropical zone, dense forests of cycads, araucaria and ginkgo grew, while in zones with a cooler climate grassy vegetation dominated. Diplodocus lived in dry coniferous forests and cycad groves, which in the distant past covered the territories of the modern states of Colorado, Montana, Utah and Wyoming (USA).


In all likelihood, diplodocus did not care about the eggs they laid.

Lifestyle.


Diplodocus fed on branches plucked from the tops of trees.

Diplodocus lived and roamed in herds. It is not known whether these were groups with a fuzzy organization, or if there was some kind of hierarchy in them. It can be assumed that on the march the herds of diplodocus observed a certain order. Cubs and juveniles usually kept in the center of the group, under the reliable protection of adults. The huge mass of the body did not allow them to move quickly, and when food supplies were depleted in one place, the group gradually moved to another pasture. Lizards devoted all daylight hours to searching for food and feeding, eating huge masses of greenery. They plucked the freshest leaves and tender branches from the tops of the trees, reaching them with their long necks or standing on their hind legs and leaning on their muscular tail. In the front of both jaws of diplodocus, sharp teeth grew, with which dinosaurs bit off the rough parts of plants. Grinding of food occurred in the digestive tract. From time to time, lizards swallowed stones that served as millstones in the stomach, and the rich microflora and microfauna that lived in the intestines were engaged in the splitting of plant fibers. Diplodocus were so big and strong that they had no natural enemies. When attacked, they lashed their enemies with powerful tail blows, from which the appetite of the most hungry predators quickly disappeared.


Not being able to reach the topmost and succulent branches, the lizard stood up on its hind legs, and its massive tail served as its support.

Other herbivorous dinosaurs.


Being attacked, the diplodocus frantically whipped the aggressor with its long whip-like tail.

An impressive cohort of herbivorous dinosaurs is represented by numerous groups of pangolins, sometimes having the most bizarre appearance. Along with gigantic sauropods, it included fat-headed dinosaurs, hypsilophodonts, iguanodons, hadrosaurs, stegosaurs, horned and armored dinosaurs. Stegosaurus reaching length 9m, while walking leaned on all four legs. Its forelimbs were shorter and more slender than its hind limbs, and on the backbone there was a double row of bone plates up to 60 cm long. These plates, loosely seated in thick skin, performed two main functions: they protected the animal's back from predators and helped regulate body temperature. The main weapon of the stegosaurus was a massive tail with four long and sharp spikes at the end. With tail blows, the lizard could inflict fatal injuries on enemies.


The Stegosaurus inhabited the territory of the modern states of Colorado, Oklahoma, Utah and Wyoming (USA).

Leaellynosaurus belonged to the group of hypsilophodonts. The territories inhabited by this pangolin in the early Cretaceous period were the subpolar region of Gondwana - and, apparently, it was well adapted to life in a cold climate. These dinosaurs were 2-3 m long and probably lived in well-organized herds. Triceratops , which had a length of up to 9m and weighing up to 10 tons, was one of the largest horned dinosaurs. This lizard differed from all others with a huge massive skull and a well-developed bone collar, which, apparently, served as an organ of thermoregulation. The front part of the jaws of the animal turned into a kind of beak, with which the lizard cut off the hard parts of plants. Triceratops lived in large herds, and defended themselves from enemies with three long and sharp horns.


Leaellynasaurus inhabited what is now Australia.

Related species.

Diplodocus belonged to the suborder of sauropods ( Sauropodomorpha ) - gigantic herbivorous lizards, in many respects similar to each other. All sauropods had a small head and a very long neck, their massive shortened body rested on mighty columnar legs, and a long tail was very narrowed at the end. These slow pangolins lived in the Mesozoic era, from the beginning of the Jurassic to the end of the Cretaceous period, that is, 180-65 million years ago.


Triceratops was distributed over vast areas of North America.

Brachiosaurus reached a length of 27 m and a weight of 47 tons. The height of the brachiosaurus at the withers was 6 m. The neck of the lizard was very long, and the forelimbs were much longer than the hind ones. Starting from the shoulder blades, the ridge of the Brachiosaurus dropped noticeably backwards, like that of a modern giraffe. In the late Jurassic period (about 150 million years ago), this lizard was distributed on the territory of the current state of Colorado (USA), as well as in Tanzania and Algeria (Africa), where it grazed among tall trees, eating their foliage. The body weight of individual animals reached 100 tons.

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