10 Long Neck Dinosaurs That You Should Know

Which long-necked dinosaur is your favorite? Do you want to compare them? When we think of long-necked dinosaurs, we usually think of members of the dinosaur (plant-eating) sauropod taxonomy. They have long necks and tails, small heads, and four thick legs. Let’s look at some examples and find out some dinosaur facts about them!

1. Brachiosaurus:
Brachiosaurus lived in the Jurassic period and is a sauropod dinosaur. They are 26 meters long, 12-16 meters high, and weigh about 30 tons. They are the tallest dinosaurs with complete skeletons unearthed so far, and they are also one of the largest and heaviest dinosaurs that have ever appeared on the earth. Their biggest feature is their huge forelimbs, which is why they are called “Brachiosaurus”. Brachiosaurus had a particularly small head and was therefore not very intelligent, and the mound-like protrusion on the top of its head was its snout. The long neck of Brachiosaurus allowed it to reach high treetops and eat leaves that other dinosaurs could not, satisfying its huge appetite. Brachiosaurus has a mild temperament and likes to live in groups. In order to satisfy their big appetite, they often migrate in groups. Wherever they go, the earthquake trembles, the smoke billows, and all kinds of small animals flee one after another.

2. Mamenchisaurus
Mamenchisaurus was 22 meters long from the top of its head to the tip of its tail, 7 meters tall, and weighed 55 tons when alive. The neck of Mamenchisaurus was 9 meters long, 3 times that of giraffes, including giraffes. There are only 7 cervical vertebrae, while Mamenchisaurus has 19 cervical vertebrae. Its neck also has ribs, called cervical ribs, which can be up to 3 meters long. The strength of the neck, but also makes it laborious to turn the neck. The skull is small, the teeth are thin and rod-shaped, the neck is long, the spine is large and bulky, and the joint surfaces of the limbs are rough. The Hechuan Mamenchisaurus discovered in Sichuan in 1957 can reach a length of 22 meters. It weighs nearly 40 tons, has a small head, and has an extremely long neck that stretches like a crane. They spend most of their time in lakes and swamps, using water to float their bulky bodies. Rest and lay eggs in places with hard sand. Feeds mainly on succulent aquatic plants. It lived in the late Jurassic period 140 million years ago and became extinct at the end of the Cretaceous period. Today, when China’s theropod dinosaurs are poor and weak, Mamenchisaurus has propped up the facade of Chinese dinosaurs with its own size. It is the pride of Chinese dinosaurs! It is also the pride of Chinese paleontology!

3. Diplodocus
Diplodocus is one of the easiest dinosaurs to identify, with its enormous size, long neck and tail, and strong limbs. Diplodocus is longer than Apatosaurus and Brachiosaurus, but because of its long head and tail, short torso, and very thin, Diplodocus is not heavy. Although Diplodocus has a long neck, it has few tough neck bones. The neck does not bend freely like a plesiosaur. Brachiosaurus, Brontosaurus, and Diplodocus all had nostrils on the top of their heads. Diplodocus is 27 meters long. Due to the lighter backbones, its body is thin, weighing only a dozen tons, and its weight is far less than that of Apatosaurus and Brachiosaurus. Its teeth are only in the front of its mouth and are so tiny that it can only eat tender, succulent plants. Diplodocus has a very small head, so it’s not smart. Diplodocus is a herbivore. When eating, it does not chew, but directly swallows food such as leaves. Some large carnivorous dinosaurs preyed on Diplodocus.

4. Apatosaurus
Apatosaurus, a genus of the Diplodocidae, lived in the Jurassic period about 150 million years ago. They are one of the largest living creatures on land, weighing up to 20 tons. According to the newly discovered dinosaur thigh bones in Argentina, they are 4-5.5 meters tall and about 23 meters long. The biggest feature is the thick and long neck. , and a thin, long tail. The tails of most dinosaurs have the attributes of attack and defense. However, research has shown that the tail of Apatosaurus once had such a function, but due to the influence of the living environment, it has degenerated to a certain extent, so it appears to be relatively slender, weakening its aggressiveness. Its neck is 6 meters long, which is actually longer than its body. Its tail is about 9 meters long, and it stands up to the rump and is about 4.5 meters tall. The back half of its body is higher than the shoulders, but when it stands up on its heels, it really looks like a towering cloud. There is speculation that brontosaurus sleeps standing up, and they may live in groups on plains and forests, fighting enemies with their huge size and group behavior. It may live in plains and forests and may travel in packs. Apatosaurus, once confused with Brontosaurus, has now been shown to be two different dinosaurs.

5. Brontosaurus
Brontosaurus was once classified as Apatosaurus, a genus of the sauropod family Diplodocidae, which lived about 150 million years ago. Brontosaurus is nearly 20 meters long and weighs more than 20 tons, which is smaller than its close relative, Apatosaurus, which can reach up to 50-55 tons, but the general body size of the two is similar, about 10-15 tons. Brontosaurus has a long neck and whip-like tail. The head is rather small compared to the body. With spoon-shaped teeth, it was a herbivorous dinosaur. The forelimbs are slightly shorter than the hind legs. Their cervical vertebrae were shorter and heavier than those of Diplodocus, and their leg bones were stronger and longer than those of Diplodocus, and they were considered to be more stout dinosaurs than Diplodocus. During normal movement, the tail will leave the ground. Brontosaurus has a large claw on its forelimbs and claws on the first three toes of its hind limbs. Brontosaurus and its “sister”, Diplodocus, represent another evolutionary direction for sauropods, which not only have long necks but also longer tails with tapered, whip-like ends. Since they are also advanced sauropod dinosaurs, the pit structures on the vertebrae are also quite developed, and even the interior of the vertebral body has holes. This is an adaptive change of the large dinosaurs being suitable for terrestrial life and reducing their own weight.

6. Omeisaurus
Emeisaurus is a herbivorous animal. They are large sauropod dinosaurs in the group. Each species has a large difference in size. The body length is about 10 to 20 meters, the height is about 4 to 7 meters, and the weight is about 10 to 15 tons. The head is large and the skull height is more than half of its length. Like other sauropodomorphs, Emeisaurus had a typical bulky body with a long neck and a wedge-shaped head. However, unlike many sauropods, Emeisaurus’s nostrils were located at the front of the nose, not the top of the head. Due to the longer hind legs, the highest point of its back is at the buttocks. Emeiosaurus had a long neck and 17 cervical vertebrae, larger than the average for sauropods. The spine itself is long and large, so the neck is particularly long, the longest cervical vertebra is 3 times the longest dorsal vertebra, and more than 1.5 times the length of the tail. Emeilong’s forelimbs are short and sturdy, with claws on the first finger of the forelimb, and claws on the first, second, and third toes of the hind limbs. Emei dragon teeth huge teeth with serrations at the front. This clear feature suggests that it was a plant-eating dinosaur. At that time, Emeiosaurus was one of the most common sauropods in China. They like to live in groups and often make their homes on the edge of inland lakes.

7. Shunosaurus
The fossils of Shunosaurus were found in Sichuan Province, my country, and it was named after Sichuan’s ancient name “Shu”. Shunosaurus is cumbersome and walks on all fours. The big tail hammer on its tail is its main defensive weapon. It mainly lives in riverside or lakeside areas. Because its teeth are leaf-like and the edges are not serrated, it can only feed on tender and succulent plants or low tree branches and leaves. The Shunosaurus is about 10 meters long, equivalent to the size of an adult female elephant. For a sauropod, Shunosaurus had a rather short neck. The Shunosaurushas has a short and deep skull, the nostrils are located in the lower part of the muzzle, and the spoon-shaped teeth are quite strong. Sauropods are by far the largest land animals. Shunosaurus belongs to the primitive sauropod dinosaurs, and they have not yet fully evolved a huge body shape. Shunosaurus was medium in size and had a shorter neck compared to other sauropods. Shunosaurus is cumbersome, slow-moving, and likes to live in groups, usually appearing in groups with whale dragons. The Shunosaurus has its own unique self-defense weapon, which is the bone tail hammer that grows at the end of the tail. When dinosaurs were alive, such an endoplasmic tail hammer was covered with flesh and looked about the size of a children’s football. There was such a “war hammer” at the end of the thick tail that was more than 4 meters long. If it was swung, it might cause some meat to eat. Animals run away.

8. Daxiatitan
Daxiatitan is a genus of sauropoda titanosaurs. Its fossils were found in the Lanzhou Basin in Gansu Province, China, and maybe in the early Cretaceous period. Fossils of cervical vertebrae and femurs have been found. Daxiatitan has a long neck and a body length of 30 meters, making it one of the longest dinosaurs in China. There are probably 19 cervical vertebrae, with a length of 12.5 meters. The height of their neck alone is 8.7 meters, and their weight during his lifetime was more than 70 tons. Daxiatitan is a herbivorous dinosaur. The big summer dragon lives in the jungle; in order to maintain the energy consumption of the huge body, the big summer dragon often wanders in the jungle, looking for food resources.

9. Paralititan
Little is known about Paralititan, so it is difficult to estimate the correct size of Paralititan. However, the limited number of fossils shows that Paralititan was one of the largest dinosaurs ever discovered, with an estimated weight of 60-80 metric tons. The neck and tail of the Paralititan and the body in the middle add up to a total length of 27 to 30 meters. Like other titanosaurs, Paralititan possessed a broad stance and may have had defensive bony formations on their bodies. The head of the Paralititan is small and the legs are not long enough. It can be imagined that the movement is inconvenient. To catch animals to eat, you can only wait for the rabbits. Fortunately, they don’t eat meat, they eat plants, and the place where they lived was not a desert at that time, but a seashore. Here is the sea when the tide is high, the land when the tide is low, and the seawater is salty. Generally, terrestrial plants cannot grow here, but mangroves like this place. In addition, the climate was hot at that time, and the trees grew fast enough for dinosaurs. Eat here. Therefore, Paralititan is also the first dinosaur to be confirmed to live in the ecological environment of mangroves.

10. Argentinosaurus
Argentinosaurus is one of the largest animals that ever roamed the earth, 12 meters tall and 42 meters long. Of all the creatures in modern times, only Amphicoelias fragillimus is longer than it, and some other dinosaurs were as long as Argentinosaurus, and some were taller than it. Still, Argentinosaurus was much heavier than any other dinosaur, possibly weighing 94 tons or the combined weight of 20 elephants. Only a partial skeleton of Argentinosaurus has been found. Scientists cannot determine its exact size. It is worth mentioning that the spine of the Argentinosaurus was 1.5 meters high and 1.1 meters wide. Their living place is the lakeside surrounded by forests. This lake and stream area with abundant water and food is the environment for many large sauropods to survive.