What is the long neck dinosaur

9 Dinosaurs With Long Necks

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Key Points:

• Like giraffes, dinosaurs used their long necks to consume plant life high in trees.
• The neck of the Isisaurus was long and also extremely thick when compared to other long-necked dinosaurs.
• The Mamenchisaurus grew to a length of about 65 feet (19.8 meters) and a height of 35 feet (10.6 meters). Its neck was extremely long and made up most of its length.

Millions of years ago, dinosaurs were abundant on the earth, and one common type was the sauropod. These dinosaurs had some of the longest necks in history and are also among the largest animals to ever walk the earth. Currently, the male giraffe is the animal with the longest neck.

In this article, you will learn about 10 dinosaur species that had some of the longest necks ever, some of which are much larger than the giraffes we see today.

Like giraffes, dinosaurs used their long necks to feed on plant life high in the trees and support their herbivorous lifestyles. The first sauropods came into existence during the early Jurassic Epoch period, and they existed millions of years later. The dinosaurs on this list and other giants that lived millions of years ago are among the largest animals to ever exist, before going fully extinct.

1. Brachiosaurus

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Brachiosaurus lived during the Late Jurrasic Period in what is now North America. Their neck was long like other sauropods, and each vertebra was 3 feet (1 meter) long. Brachiosaurus stood 39 feet tall (12 meters) and had a body 75 feet long (23 meters). Brachiosaurus is estimated to have weighed as much as 40 tons (40,000 Kilograms). 

This dinosaur and other sauropods have had similar traits to each other such as:

• Long necks and tail 
• Walking on all fours
• A herbivorous diet
• Small heads and tiny brain 

The tall neck of the Brachiosaurus helps reach the leaves in the tallest of trees. Living in herds, food was a major motivator in getting the herd to travel. While it is impossible to know the true lifespan of the Brachiosaurus, paleontologists estimate them to live around 100 years. 

2. Isisaurus

A large sauropod dinosaur that lived during the Cretaceous Period is the Isisaurus. This dinosaur lived in India, and its fossils are some of the most complete among Titanosuaria. The Isisaurus is estimated to have a large length of around 59.1 feet (18 meters). The fossil of this species is nearly complete, and they are one of the closest dinosaur species to modern-day giraffes in appearance.

The neck of the Isisaurus was long and stuck out more forward instead of vertically. This species’ neck was also extremely thick when compared to other long-necked dinosaurs. Their legs were long, but the incomplete fossils discovered are not enough to know how large they were capable of growing. Grasslands, forests, and wetland-type habitats are some of the areas they may have lived.  

3. Camarasaurus 

©Catmando/Shutterstock.com

Living in North America, Camarasaurus is one of the most common dinosaurs to find. Fossils of this species have been continually discovered since 1877, with specimens being dug up across the United States. Four species of Camarasaurus exist which are C. supremus, C. grandis, C. lentus, and C. lewisi.

These dinosaurs are not the largest of sauropods, and they grow to be around 50 to 65 feet long (15 to 20 meters). Standing at around 20 feet tall (6 meters), it is estimated they weighed around 20 tons (40000 lbs). The Camarasaurus diet mainly consisted of conifers since that was the dominant plant of their time. To reproduce like other dinosaurs, Camarasuars laid eggs and have also left some egg fossils behind. To increase survivability, they traveled together in groups with other Sauropods. 

4. Anchisaurus 

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The Anchisaurus walked the earth from 150 to 144 million years ago in the late Jurrasic Period. This species lived in North America, with its fossil discovered in Nova Scotia, Canada, Connecticut, and Arizona. Anchisaurus are sauropods but much smaller than some of their relatives. Unlike other sauropods, they are capable of walking on both two and four legs. 

The Anchisaurus has a length of between 6.6 to 13 feet (2.011 meters), and they weigh around 60 lbs (27.2 kgs). Plants were what this species survived off mostly, but they occasionally ate meat. 

5. Haplocantosaurus

Haplocantosaurus is a Sauropod dinosaur that lived in North America around 157 to 153 million years ago.  Fossils of the Haplocantosaurus have been discovered in Colorado and Wyoming.  Haplocantosaurus are able to grow more than 49 feet in length (14.8 meters). Originally this dinosaur was named Haplocanthus, but this was changed since the name was close to another animal.  

Only four fossils of these dinosaurs have been discovered, and they are all incomplete. The Haplocantosaurs likely weighed up to 25 tons, and being so large, they needed a large amount of food to feed their herbivorous diet. Ferns most likely made up a large portion of this dinosaur’s diet since these plants were abundant during the Jurrasic period. 

6. Mamenchisaurus 

©iStock.com/CoreyFord

The Mamenchisaurus are sauropod dinosaurs that lived in Asia during the Jurassic period. Fossils of this species have been discovered in China and Mongolia. There are around 6 species in the genus of Memenchisaurus, but this may change over time as more fossil evidence is discovered in the future.

These dinosaurs grow to a length of about 65 feet (19.8 meters) and a height of 35 feet (10.6 meters). Their neck is extremely long and makes up most of their length. This dinosaur has similar traits to other sauropods, like walking on all fours and being a herbivore.  

7. Diplodocus

©Daniel Eskridge/Shutterstock.com

Weighing around 33069 lbs(15000 kilograms), the Diplodocus is one of the largest animals to ever walked the earth. This dinosaur had a long neck, walked on all fours, and had a whip-like tail. This species lived in the United States during the Late Jurassic period. Roaming 155 to 145 million years ago, fossils have been discovered in  Colorado, Montana, Utah, and Wyoming. The Diplodocus is a very common fossil, with more than 100 different specimens being discovered. Their head is an extremely rare find, as it was small and only around 2 feet (0.6 meters). 

Being so large helped these herbivores eat from the many tall trees during the Jurassic period. Their teeth were comb-like and made it easy to plush leaves from trees. All together with the neck and tail, they had a length of around 85 feet (26 meters). They were not the heaviest of sauropods, and they weighed around 11 tons.  

8.  Dreadnoughtus

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Dreadnoughtus is a type of titanosaurian sauropod and lived from the Late Jurassic period until the extinction of the dinosaurs. These species are among the largest animals to walk the earth and have a length of around 85 feet (26 meters). Walking on all fours, they carried a large mass of approximately 65 tons (130000 lbs). Dreadnoughtus inhabited Argentina and other areas in South America.

The large size of this dinosaur is what gives its name Dreadnoughtus. Being so large, they would have been almost untouchable, as they are much larger than most predatory species. Their large tail and neck made them dangerous to provoke. Sauropods inhabited forests with large and plentiful trees to be able to feed their enormous appetite. Most titanosaurian fossils are incomplete, but the Dreadnougtus has the most complete fossil of any species, with around 70% of its skeleton recovered.  

9. Argentinosaurus 

©Warpaint/Shutterstock.com

Towering overall, the Argentinosaurus is the largest dinosaur ever to be discovered. This sauropod is a type of titanosaur, which are some of the largest dinosaurs ever to exist. Argentinosuarus are named after their discovery site, which was on a ranch in Argentina. Discovered in 1987, 13 fossilized bones are how we know this enormous species once walked the earth. 

This large sauropod is estimated to grow 98 to 130 feet long (29 to 39 meters) when fully grown. Much taller than your average giraffe, the Argentinosaurus looked down 70 feet above everyone. This dinosaur is almost the heaviest to ever be discovered and weighed between 110,000 to 220,000 lbs (49895.1 to 99790.3 kilograms). Computer generations using the fossil evidence left behind is how this species gets its depictions. 

Summary of the 9 Dinosaurs with Long Necks

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Meet the dinosaur with a record-breaking neck longer than a school bus

Mamenchisaurus sinocanadorum had the longest neck of any known dinosaur, researchers said.

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CNN  — 

A plant-eating sauropod that lumbered around what’s now China some 162 million years ago had a neck that was about 10 feet longer than a typical school bus — and the longest of any known dinosaur.

The creature’s 49. 5-foot-long (15.1-meter) neck would have allowed it to stand in one spot and hoover up the surrounding vegetation — maximizing the amount of food it consumed while conserving energy.

The fossilized remains of the dinosaur, called Mamenchisaurus sinocanadorum, were discovered in 1987 in China’s northwestern region of Xinjiang and first described in a 1993 scientific paper. The dinosaur was named after the joint Chinese-Canadian team that unearthed the fossil.

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In a fresh analysis of the fossil published in the Journal of Systematic Palaeontology on Wednesday, paleontologists used computerized topography scanning that wasn’t widely available three decades ago to compare M. sinocanadorum with other related sauropods unearthed in recent years.

“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-meter-long neck, it looks like Mamenchisaurus sinocanadorum might be a record-holder — at least until something longer is discovered,” said study lead author Andrew Moore, a paleontologist and assistant professor at New York’s Stony Brook University in a statement.

The paleontologists were able to infer the length of the neck by studying the specimen’s three preserved vertebrae and comparing them with the neck bones of closely related dinosaurs.

“We actually happen to know who it is related to, which provides nice comparisons. In this case, it’s well nested evolutionarily within a lineage that we know had 18 cervical (neck) vertebrae,” Moore explained. “We can scale up from the comparators to figure out absolute neck length.”

The longest complete neck documented by scientists belongs to a fossilized dinosaur called Xinjiangtitan, Moore said, and that was about 5 feet (1. 5 meters) shorter than the neck of M. sinocanadorum.

The study also revealed intriguing details about these massive dinosaurs. Similar to a bird’s lightweight skeleton, M. sinocanadorum’s bones were filled with air, rather than marrow, which is a characteristic of most mammal bones. CT scans showed that air made up 69% to 77% of the vertebrae’s volume.

“Presumably, that’s an important mechanism for building such a long neck because that’s going to get quite heavy,” Moore said.

The longest complete neck documented by scientists belongs to a fossilized dinosaur called Xinjiangtitan (top). M. sinocanadorum (bottom) has an even longer one, researchers believe.

While the posture of some sauropod species might have featured a neck held erect in swanlike fashion, Moore said that biomechanical studies suggested the Mamenchisaurid neck was elevated at an angle of about 20 to 30 degrees above the horizontal.

However, even at this relatively shallow angle, the neck’s extreme length would still mean the animal’s head could reach heights of around 24.6 to 32.8 feet (7.5 meters to 10 meters) above the ground.

The sauropod’s evolutionary adaptations — gigantic size and vegetarian diet — have no modern equivalent, according to the study. But the lineage of these long-necked dinos was very successful, with different sauropod species appearing early on in the dinosaur era and thriving until their extinction 66 million years ago.

The giant footprint left by a dinosaur was found on the Yorkshire Coast.

Record-breaking dinosaur footprint appears on the Yorkshire coast

“They’re seemingly well engineered to be efficient food gatherers and that’s what the neck allows them to do … plant themselves in one space, eat the vegetation that’s around them and then move only as necessary.

“As for why Mamenchisaurus among sauropods had relatively even longer necks? Maybe it’s just that much more efficient. … It’s hard to say but it’s clearly something central to their biology.”

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.

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As you understand, dinosaurs with a long neck do not live at a nearby 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.

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

It is believed that long-necked dinosaurs were 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.

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Diplodocus remains 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.

China found the dinosaur with the longest neck

March 16, 2023 18:00

So far, only a few fossil fragments of the skeleton of this strange dinosaur have been found. The picture shows the bone of the lower jaw of an ancient creature.
Photo by Paul Barrett.

A sauropod from China may have had the longest neck of any known dinosaur.

Interestingly, the discovery was made 30 years after this species was first discovered.

About 160 million years ago, towards the end of the Jurassic period, a very outstanding species of dinosaurs roamed the territory of China.

Sauropods are well known for their long necks, but species Mamenchisaurus sinocanadorum had a particularly prominent neck. In adults, it reached a length of 15 meters.

Despite this feature, representatives of the species M. sinocanadorum were not the largest dire lizards in history. All because of the relatively small tail and body size.

Now scientists are trying to understand why this dinosaur could have such an exceptionally long neck.

"It appears that these necks were probably associated with increased feeding, as in other sauropods. But they could also serve more than one role," study author Professor Paul Barrett said.

Dinosaurs may have used super long necks to charm the female. Maybe the neck somehow helped them in the battles for territory.

But so far it is impossible to come to any unambiguous conclusions, since we actually know very little about the life of dinosaurs of antiquity.

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