Key Takeaways
- Sauropods, or long-neck dinosaurs, lived in the Mesozoic Era, reaching enormous sizes and living globally.
- Evidence suggests Sauropods like Brontosaurus, Apatosaurus, and Diplodocus could create supersonic cracks with their tails.
- Despite their size, Sauropods didn’t chew their food well; their digestion relied heavily on powerful stomach enzymes.
- Sauropods had an intriguing anatomy, their brain was 26 feet above their heart which weighed over 200 kg.
- Contrary to past beliefs, the Brontosaurus was found to be unique enough to be its own dinosaur classification.
- The Mamenchisaurus, Brachiosaurus, and Alamosaurus were among some of the largest Sauropods, reaching lengths over 30 meters.
Whenever I hear the phrase “animals with long necks,” my mind thinks instantly of giraffes. They are known that they have long necks for reaching out to the upper canopy of trees. However, when I hear “long neck dinosaurs,” my mind takes an entirely different track. I start to think of those giant Sauropod dinosaur skeletons and prehistoric swamps where they lived. There were many different kinds, but how many and why did they evolve to have such a long neck?
What Are Long Neck Dinosaurs?
So, what are long neck dinosaurs? Long neck dinosaurs are Sauropods, a species of dinosaur that lived in the Mesozoic Era. They are noted to have developed lengthy necks, up to 30 feet (9.1 meters), tree trunk legs, and relatively small heads.
Their prolonged neck served to help them eat vegetation from the tops of trees. All Sauropods were herbivores. The long neck Sauropods include Argentinosaurus, Alamosaurus, Ultrasaurus, Camarasaurus, Brontosaurus, Brachiosaurus, Apatosaurus, Diplodocus, and Dreadnoughtus.
The long neck Sauropods existed for approximately 140 million years that span across the Mesozoic Era, making them one of the most successful dinosaurs that lived in all three periods of the Mesozoic. Let’s take a deeper look at these Sauropods, understand better why they had developed long necks, and more about the characteristics and habitat of these dinosaurs. Read on to learn more!
Table of Contents
What is a Dinosaur with a Long Neck Called? All About Sauropods
The long neck dinosaurs are called Sauropods. The word Sauropoda comes from the Greek word meaning “lizard-footed.” It was coined and used for the first time in 1878 by a paleontologist named O. C. Marsh.
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Wikipedia describes Sauropods as having “very long necks, long tails small heads (relative to the rest of their body), and four thick pillar-like legs. They are notable for the enormous sizes attained by some species, and the group includes the largest animals to have ever lived on land”.
Fossil specimens of Sauropod dinosaurs are present all over the world, so it’s clear that they had lived in every corner of the earth, and paleontologists estimate that the earliest fossils are from the early Jurassic and continue through the late-Cretaceous period.
Long Neck Dinosaurs – Sauropod Anatomy Details
Sauropods were dinosaurs with great body mass. You can tell just by looking at the skeletons how massive these dinosaurs were. According to different theories, we can estimate that for the larger mature species, it may have reached a mass bodyweight of 80 metric tons (80,000 kg). The length of their body can reach more than 110 feet (33.5 meters). Even the smallest of these dinosaurs had a length of more than 20 feet (6.1 meters).
They had tree trunk sized tails, with the ability to bear such a heavyweight that it’s speculated that some of the dinosaurs could stand on its rear two legs, possibly for reaching more vegetation in trees, but also for fighting against predators. One interesting study about Sauropod tails (Source) suggests that dinosaurs like Brontosaurus, Apatosaurus and Diplodocus could whip their tail and make a loud, even supersonic, cracking sound. It could be used as a weapon against predators or to scare them away.
YouTube Video – Brachiosaurus scene in Jurassic Park
All of the Sauropods were plant-eaters, and recent studies on their jaws are show that they did not chew their food well. Instead, and they had powerful enzymes in the stomach to help digest their food and eating more than 100,000 calories a day.
Sauropods could replace their teeth quickly. It took approximately 14 days to 64 days to completely replace a tooth. As Sauropods were herbivores, the shape of their teeth was flatter or at least cone-shaped, used for grinding vegetation. If you are interested to know more about dinosaur teeth, both herbivore and carnivore, check out my article on this website, “What’s the Value of a Real Dinosaur Tooth (Single, On Jawbone)?”
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Introduction
The table below provides a detailed view of some fascinating facts about the anatomy of Sauropods, a group of dinosaurs known for their long necks and massive bodies. This includes information about their hearts, lungs, reproduction, and growth.
| Anatomy Part | Interesting Fact | Additional Information |
|---|---|---|
| Brain | Positioned more than 26 feet (7.9 meters) above their heart | They kept their necks low to facilitate the pumping of blood |
| Heart | Weighed more than 200 kg (441 pounds) | More than the weight of three normal human adult beings |
| Neck and Lungs | Had a long neck and windpipe with additional air sacs | This helped support their respiratory system |
| Reproduction | All sauropods were oviparous (egg-laying) | Sauropod nest discoveries have been recently made |
| Growth | Newly born Sauropods needed only 23 years or less to grow | They could reach the full size of an 80 metric ton sauropod |
Use this table as a reference to gain a deeper understanding of these majestic creatures and the physiological traits that enabled them to thrive in their environments.
Some of them had developed some protective advancements like armor and tails with spikes, similar to other herbivore dinosaurs like Stegosaurus. If you want to know more about how dinosaurs protected themselves with armor and weapons, see my article to learn more! How Did Dinosaurs Protect Themselves? (Armor, Weapons)
Brontosaurus – The Well-Known Sauropod That Lost Its Name, Then Reclaimed It
One of the most well-known Sauropod dinosaurs, the Brontosaurus (meaning “thunder-lizard”), has an interesting history that has just been resolved in recent years. Skeletons of these giant Brontosaurus dinosaurs were found in the 1800s, but there was some mixing of the skeletons of Brontosaurus and the Apatosaurus (meaning “deceptive-lizard”), a similar Sauropod species. Both dinosaurs belong to the Diplodocids in scientific classification (taxonomy).
Well, in the 1970s, scientists realized that the skeletons built earlier had mixed the head of the Brontosaurus with the Apatosaurus. Therefore, they declared that the Brontosaurus did not exist. It was an Apatosaurus.
Fast forward to 2015, and scientists determined that the Brontosaurs is actually unique and different enough to be its own classification of a dinosaur. (Source)
The Brontosaurus excelsus is different from the Apatosaurus by having a higher neck and one that is less wide.
Why Did Dinosaurs Have Long Necks, and What is the Biggest Long Neck Dinosaur?
With the advancement of technology and recent improvements in the field of bioinformatics, many areas of research expand and develop. That goes as well for the study of dinosaurs. The paleontologist and other fossils lovers nowadays not only look for skeletons of dinosaurs, but they are focusing on what features and habitats of the dinosaurs had for all categories of discovered dinosaurs.
About That Long Neck
That brings us to the question of why did the Sauropods evolve such long necks? According to LiveScience (Source) https://www.livescience.com/27376-how-dinosaurs-grew-longest-necks.html, they have three possible theories. First, so that they could reach the high canopy tops of trees to eat, second, they could eat the vegetation from side to side like modern-day geese. And third, for fighting with other Sauropods during the mating process. It’s interesting that in present-day giraffes, we see these same characteristics and use of the long neck.
When it comes to answering which Sauropod had the longest neck, there is no definite conclusion. It is probably because the number or size of the neck vertebrae cannot always give the accurate size of the neck. So, here are the top three contenders for the longest neck dinosaur:
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The Brachiosaurus
One of the dinosaurs that had one of the longest necks was the Brachiosaurus (meaning arm-lizard). The length of a Brachiosaurus neck could reach as much as 30 feet (xx meters), making the total length of the dinosaur (neck, body, and tail) up to 69 feet (21 meters). An interesting feature in the anatomy of the Brachiosaurus was that the two forelimbs were longer than the hindlimbs. The Brachiosaurus that was found in Colorado, USA, was specifically named Brachiosaurus altithorax (meaning deep chest) by its full name.
Other Brachiosaurus fossils have been found in the US states of Oklahoma, Utah, and Wyoming, although the fossils coming out of Colorado have been the most complete skeletons found.
The Diplodocus
Another contender for the longest neck was the Diplodocus (meaning double-beam). Many of the sources listed this dinosaur as having the longest neck.
Diplodocus was lived at the end of the Jurassic period. They were one of the dinosaurs who ate stones along with the vegetation to crush the food in their stomach during digestion. Most of the Diplodocus fossils are found in the Morrison Formation in Colorado, USA. The length of the Diplodocus neck in one of the most well-known fossils (Diplodocus carnegii found in Sheep Creek, Wyoming) had a neck that was at least 21 feet (6.5 meters) long.
The Mamenchisaurus
The Mamenchisaurus was a Sauropod dinosaur that lived in China. The fossil skeleton found in Sichuan, China. The neck of the Mamenchisaurus was 32 feet long, and the total dinosaur measured an astonishing 90 feet (27.4 meters) from head to tail.
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List of Long Neck Dinosaurs
The lizard-foot Sauropod dinosaurs were the giants of the dinosaur family. It’s not a complete list by any means, but here are some of the better-known Sauropods:
- Argentinosaurus – was the known animal of all time they had their life in the late Cretaceous period. The main living area for them was today’s Argentina. They had more than 50 tons of weight, and they had their body length from 30 to 39 meters.
- Alamosaurus- was one of the largest dinosaurs of North America that lived in New Mexico. They weighed almost 30 tons and length more than 30 meters.
- Ultrasaurus- was known as great lizards. They lived 110 million years ago.
- Camarasaurus- was also known as chambered lizards. They lived between 145 to 155 million years ago. They were 23-meter-long, and the weight of them was 51 tons.
- Titanosaurids- were also known as “Titanic lizards.”
- Apatosaurus- was almost 22-meter-long and weighed between 16 to 13 tons.
- Opisthocoelicaudia- lived a late cretaceous period like 70 million years ago. They were one of the smallest of their kind having a length of just 11 meters.
- Haplocanthosaurus- lived 152 to 155 million years ago. They were quite small compared to their fellow species. The total length for them was 12 meters, and they got a total weight of about 14 tons.
Final Thoughts
The Sauropods are exciting dinosaurs to study and discover because as soon as you start learning about them and imagine how they lived, you are shocked at how large they actually were. They were tall and long, but now we are finding that some had developed armor, that their tails could be used a whip, and that some species could stand on its hind legs. That’s not just a sleepy swamp dinosaur!
Frequently Asked Questions
What are Sauropods?
Sauropods, also described as long-necked dinosaurs, are a group of herbivorous dinosaurs that have extremely long necks and tails. They are considered to be one of the largest land animals to ever walk the earth.
Which dinosaurs are considered long neck dinosaurs?
Some of the well-known long neck dinosaurs include brachiosaurus, diplodocus, apatosaurus, camarasaurus, argentinosaurus, and mamenchisaurus.
What is the size of long neck dinosaurs?
Long neck dinosaurs can be quite large. They range in size from about 50 to 100 feet in length, with some species reaching even greater lengths.
When did long neck dinosaurs live?
Long neck dinosaurs lived during the late Jurassic period, which was around 150 million years ago.
What did long neck dinosaurs eat?
Long neck dinosaurs were herbivorous dinosaurs, meaning they primarily ate plants. They used their long necks to reach vegetation high in the trees.
How did long neck dinosaurs use their long necks?
Long neck dinosaurs used their long necks to reach vegetation that was high in the trees. This allowed them to access food that other dinosaurs couldn’t reach.
Did all dinosaurs have long necks and tails?
No, not all dinosaurs had long necks and tails. While some dinosaurs, like the long neck dinosaurs, had extremely long necks and tails, others had shorter necks and tails.
Where have long neck dinosaur fossils been discovered?
Long neck dinosaur fossils have been discovered in various regions around the world. Some notable locations include North America, where many famous long neck dinosaurs have been found.
Are there any long neck dinosaurs in popular culture?
Yes, long neck dinosaurs have appeared in popular culture, including books, movies, and television shows. They continue to captivate people’s imaginations with their incredible size and unique features.
What is the largest long neck dinosaur ever discovered?
The brachiosaurus is considered to be one of the largest long neck dinosaurs ever discovered. It could reach lengths of up to 75 feet long and was one of the largest animals to ever walk the earth.
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