A team of paleontologists from theUniversity of Albertahas discover a antecedently unknown species of long - necked , or sauropod , dinosaur from a skeleton excavate in China almost a decade ago . The mintage has been namedQijanglong , which means “ dragon of Qijang . ”
The fogey was first disclose back in 2006 when a group of building workers fag near Qijang City , southern China , came across an impressive series of prominent osseous tissue buried within the ground . Further excavation let out that the off-white were the neck vertebrae of an extremely long - necked dinosaur which , remarkably , still had the head attached . It ’s strange to rule both the head and neck of dinosaurs such as these because the tiny read/write head well separate after the animal die .
interrogation of the clay divulge that the dinosaur would have been around15 meters(50 ft ) long and roll the Earth in what is now China some 160 million years ago , during theLate Jurassic .
As advert , Qijanglongis asauropoddinosaur . These were heavy , four - legged , long - make out herbivore which existed on Earth for around100 million year , from the Lower Jurassic to the Upper Cretaceous , making them one of the most long - lived groups of dinosaurs . Sauropods were also geographically widespread , having been discovered in every continent with the exception of Antarctica .
Qijanglongbelongs to a group of dinosaur calledmamenchisauridswhich are known for possess super long neck , sometimes measure out half the duration of their body , which pick out them from other sauropods . Although all sauropods had prospicient necks , the majority of sauropod dinosaur had necks around one - third of their torso distance .
You might wonder how these animals manage to support such incredibly long necks , and their secret lie down within the theme of their neck opening vertebrae , which were filled with air . This meant that despite their astonishing distance , the necks were n’t as heavy as they appear . But while they may have been comparatively light , they still were n’t that well-situated to head as they had special tractableness . Each vertebra was connected to the next by an interlocking joint , which meant that it was overall fairly stiff and had restricted sideways movement .
Despite sauropod dinosaur bolt down up all across the world , mamenchisaurids have been found exclusively in Asia . Interestingly , the telling diversity of mamenchisaurids suggests that there could be as many differences among member of this particular group as there are between sauropod dinosaur found in different continents .
“ Qijanglongshows that long - necked dinosaurs branch out in singular ways in Asia during Jurassic times — something very extra was going on in that continent , ” study author Tetsuto Miyashita said in anews release . “ Nowhere else we can find dinosaur with long cervix than those in China . The new dinosaur tells us that these utmost coinage thrived in closing off from the rest of the world . ”
[ ViaUniversity of Albertaand theJournal of Vertebrate Paleontology ]
