Dino breaks neck length record – and this is what mega necks look like on today’s animals

You probably know them: the dinosaurs with the mega long necks. Now one of the longest dinosaur necks might be even longer than previously thought. Specifically: 15 meters. So eight giraffe necks in a row. Or perhaps something easier to imagine: as long as the Hollywood sign in Los Angeles:

Or better yet, a visualization of the gigantic dinosaur with an equally gigantic neck.

Behind this news are researchers from Stony Brook University in New York, who published their findings Wednesday in the journal “Journal of Systematic Paleontology”.

It states that the dinosaur species is common in present-day East Asia and other parts of the world Mamenchisaurus sinocanadorum had reached a neck length of more than 15 meters.

The finding is based on an actually ancient discovery: the fossil remains of the animal under study were excavated in 1987 in northwestern China. But not much was left of the giant: the remains consisted only of a lower jaw, parts of the skull and a few vertebrae. Yet everything pointed to a gigantic beast that stomped through the swampy plains of China 162 million years ago.

However, its exact size remained a mystery, as no other Mamenchisaurus sinocanadorum specimen has been excavated to date. For paleontologist Andrew J. Moore, leader of the research team, a difficulty he often encounters in his work:

However, Moore was not deterred by the few remains. He was convinced that he could gain new insights from the 40-year-old find.

To do this, he turned to a close relative of Mamenchisaurus: the Xinjiang Titan. Like the Mamenchisaurus, it belongs to the sauropod category, but lived a little earlier. The Titan was discovered in China in 2013. The find was spectacular, as the entire backbone of the animal was preserved. At 13.4 meters, it is the longest fully preserved spine in the fossil record.

For Moore and his team, this provided valuable information:

And that’s exactly what Moore’s research team did. It was concluded that the Mamenchisaurus must have had a neck more than 15 meters long.

“At 15 meters long, Mamenchisaurus sinocanadorum looks like the record holder — at least until something longer is discovered,” said paleontologist Andrew J. Moore of Stony Brook University.

Its length is impressive as it is about half the estimated total body length of Memanchisaurus. How can the dinosaur even lift its mega neck? The researchers discovered this using computer tomography: the vertebrae of the giants were not filled with tissue and bone marrow, but contained large air sacs, as in small birds. These cavities accounted for up to 77 percent of bone volume, significantly reducing the weight of the spine.

However, the neck was not vulnerable: this was ensured by a four meter long bone tissue, which the researchers call the cervical rib. This ran the full length of the neck and supported the light bones.

Despite breaking the neck length record, Moore doesn’t rule out longer necks yet to be discovered:

We can also push boundaries further. This is what today’s animals with too long necks would look like:

(saw/smi)