Scientists said that a type of dinosaur that roamed East Asia more than 160 million years ago is the longest-necked animal in history.
A new analysis of the bones from the dinosaur’s neck and skull revealed that the species known as “Mamenchisaurus sinocanadorum” had a neck that was 15 meters long, or 1.5 times the length of a double-decker bus, reports Al-Rai daily.
And according to the British newspaper “The Guardian”, the fossilized remains of the dinosaur were recovered in 1987 from 162 million-year-old rocks in the Xinjiang region in northwest China, but the entire length of the animal’s neck was finally re-evaluated by scientists.
According to the study, the results of which were published in the Journal of Paleontology, the dinosaur weighed more than 70 tons.
Scientists pointed out that the long neck of this type of dinosaur gave it the ability to graze vast areas of vegetation while standing in one place, which means that it could have obtained tons of food without spending a lot of energy.
Scientists also revealed that the vertebrae of this dinosaur’s neck were light and hollow, which explains the animal’s ability to carry them.