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Dinosaur that roamed China 162 million years ago had the longest neck of any animal

Can you understand the idea of ​​an animal with a neck as long as a car two folds?

Well, that’s just what a dinosaur that roamed China 162 million years ago had.

In fact, paleontologists say that the late Jurassic sauropod known as Mamenchisaurus sinocanadorum had potentially the longest neck of any animal that ever lived, measuring a whopping 49 feet long (15 m).

That made it more than six times longer than a giraffe’s neck and 1.5 times the length of a double-decker bus.

The revelation comes as part of research into the evolutionary history of the Mamenchisauridae, a family of particularly long-necked sauropod dinosaurs that roamed East Asia and possibly other parts of the world from around 174 to 114 million years ago.

Huge: Experts say the sauropod known as Mamenchisaurus sinocanadorum potentially had the longest neck of any animal that ever lived, measuring a whopping 49 feet long.

Mamenchisaurus sinocanadorum was one of these dinosaurs.

Fossilized remains belonging to the creature were discovered in 162-million-year-old rocks in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in 1987.

SAUROPODS: LONG-NECKED, SMALL-BRAINED DINOSAURS

Sauropods were the first successful group of herbivorous dinosaurs, dominating most terrestrial ecosystems for more than 140 million years, from the Late Triassic to the Late Cretaceous.

They had long necks and tails and relatively small skulls and brains.

They stretched up to 130 feet (40 meters) and weighed up to 80 tons (80,000 kg), 14 times the weight of an African elephant.

They were widespread: their remains have been found on every continent except Antarctica.

They had their nostrils high on their skulls, rather than located at the end of their snouts like those of so many other terrestrial vertebrates.

Some fossils show that these nostril openings were so high up in the skull that they were very close to the eye openings.

Sauropods such as Diplodocus began to diversify in the Middle Jurassic around 180 million years ago.

Source: University of California Museum of Paleontology

For sauropods like Mamenchisaurus sinocanadorum, the long neck was one of the key factors in making them as huge as they were.

To power such a large body, dinosaurs had to be efficient at gathering food, hence the long neck which meant they were able to stand in one spot and graze on the surrounding vegetation.

This allowed them to conserve energy while consuming tons of food.

Such a lifestyle proved extremely successful in allowing those types of dinosaurs to thrive.

In fact, the lineage of sauropods dates back to the earliest days of the dinosaurs and continued until the last days of the Mesozoic, when an asteroid wiped out most Jurassic creatures except for relatives of modern birds.

The paleontologists said that having a long neck likely also allowed sauropods like Mamenchisaurus to shed excess body heat by increasing their surface area, much like elephants’ ears.

However, they have long struggled to answer the question of which sauropod had the longest neck because the largest types of the species tend to be the most mysterious.

This is because it is extremely difficult for an animal of its size to become buried in sediment, which is the initial stage required for fossilization to occur.

Therefore, the poor preservation of dinosaurs makes estimates of their neck length speculative.

Although Mamenchisaurus sinocanadorum is known from only a handful of neck and skull bones, the researchers were able to compare it to the unusually complete skeletons of its closest relatives.

This allowed them to conclude that Mamenchisaurus sinocanadorum had a neck approximately 49 feet long (15.1 m), the longest of any known sauropod.

Lead author Dr Andrew Moore of Stony Brook University said: “All sauropods were big, but amazingly long necks didn’t just evolve once.”

Fossilized remains belonging to the creature were discovered in 162-million-year-old rocks in northwest China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in 1987.

Fossilized remains belonging to the creature were discovered in 162-million-year-old rocks in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in 1987.

Remains: Poor preservation of dinosaurs makes estimates of its neck length speculative

Remains: Poor preservation of dinosaurs makes estimates of its neck length speculative

Mamenchisaurids are important because they exceeded the limits of neck length and were the first lineage of sauropods to do so.

“With a 15-meter-long neck, it looks like Mamenchisaurus sinocanadorum might hold a record, at least until something longer is discovered.”

However, the question of how sauropods managed to develop such long necks and large bodies without collapsing under their own weight has baffled scientists since their discovery.

By studying Mamenchisaurus, the researchers were able to use a computed tomography (CT) scan to reveal that its vertebrae were lightweight and hollow, with air spaces making up 69 to 77 percent of their volume, similar to bird skeletons. of light construction. .

However, such featherweight skeletons would also be more prone to injury, so to combat this Mamenchisaurus had 13-foot-long (4 m) bar-like neck ribs to keep the creature’s neck in place. its place and increase its stability.

These bony extensions of the vertebrae created overlapping bundles of rods on each side of the neck to stiffen it.

That answered the question of how they were able to avoid tipping over, but the remaining mystery of Mamenchisaurus and many other long-necked sauropods is understanding how they drew air down these long necks into their lungs.

A mystery to Mamenchisaurus and many other long-necked sauropods is understanding how they drew air down these long necks into their lungs.  Professor Paul Barrett of the Natural History Museum in London said that dinosaurs

A mystery to Mamenchisaurus and many other long-necked sauropods is understanding how they drew air down these long necks into their lungs. Professor Paul Barrett of London’s Natural History Museum said dinosaurs “had a complex respiratory system.”

Professor Paul Barrett, from the Natural History Museum, London, said: “Like all other sauropod dinosaurs, Mamenchisaurus had a complex respiratory system that included not only lungs, but also numerous balloon-shaped air sacs.”

These were connected to the lungs and trachea, but extended throughout the inside of the animal’s neck, chest, and abdomen.

“Taken together, these air sacs had a much larger volume than the lungs, and even penetrated the bones, hollowing them out.

“This extra space would have helped these gigantic sauropods move the large volume of air in the long trachea that would have occupied their extraordinary necks.”

While Mamenchisaurus sinocanadorum is now believed to have the longest neck of any dinosaur, however, it was still not the largest overall.

That honor belongs to titanosaurs, which were one of the last surviving groups of sauropods before the Chicxulub asteroid impact.

The new study has been published in the Journal of Systematic Paleontology.

KILLING THE DINOSAURS: HOW AN ASTEROID THE SIZE OF A CITY KILLED OUT 75% OF ALL ANIMAL AND PLANT SPECIES

About 66 million years ago, non-avian dinosaurs were wiped out, and more than half of the world’s species were wiped out.

This mass extinction paved the way for the rise of mammals and the appearance of humans.

The Chicxulub asteroid is often cited as a potential cause of the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event.

The asteroid crashed into a shallow sea in what is now the Gulf of Mexico.

The collision released a huge cloud of dust and soot that triggered global climate change, wiping out 75 percent of all animal and plant species.

The researchers say the soot needed for such a global catastrophe could only have come from a direct impact on rocks in the shallow waters around Mexico, which are especially rich in hydrocarbons.

Within 10 hours of the impact, a huge tsunami swept through the Gulf coast, experts believe.

About 66 million years ago, non-avian dinosaurs were wiped out, and more than half of the world's species were wiped out.  The Chicxulub asteroid is often cited as a potential cause of the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event (archive image)

About 66 million years ago, non-avian dinosaurs were wiped out, and more than half of the world’s species were wiped out. The Chicxulub asteroid is often cited as a potential cause of the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event (archive image)

This triggered earthquakes and landslides in areas as far away as Argentina.

While investigating the event, the researchers found small rock particles and other debris that were shot into the air when the asteroid hit.

Called spherules, these tiny particles covered the planet in a thick layer of soot.

Experts explain that losing sunlight caused a complete collapse in the aquatic system.

This is because the phytoplankton base would have been removed from almost all aquatic food chains.

The more than 180 million years of evolution that brought the world to the Cretaceous point are thought to have been destroyed in less than the lifespan of a Tyrannosaurus rex, which is about 20 to 30 years.