Paleontologists from the University of Alberta recently discovered a new species of long-necked dinosaurs from a skeleton found near Qijiang City in China. They reported their findings in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology on January 26 (1).
The newly discovered Qijianglong belongs to the same family of long-necked mamenchisaurids as this display. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Mamenchisaurus_fossils#/media/File:Mamenchisaurus_in_Japan.jpg )
Qijianglong, meaning “dragon of Qijiang”, is about 15 meters long and lived around 160 million years ago in the Jurassic Period. Researchers have been digging at the fossil site since 2006 and eventually found neck vertebrae. The head of the dinosaur was still attached to the vertebrae, which is unusual as the head is easily detached after the animal dies (1).
Qijanglong is a member of the especially long-necked mamenchisauridae family of sauropods. Although sauropods such as the better-known Apatosaurus generally have long necks around one third the length of their body, mamenchisaurids can have necks around one half the length of their bodies.
Qijianlong’s unique neck vertebrae were filled with air and were therefore much more lightweight than the necks of other mamenchisaurids. Its neck also has interlocking joints between vertebrae and therefore moves much more easily vertically up and down than horizontally side-to-side (1).
The discovery of Qijianglong indicates that there could be more variation in the mamenchisaurid family than previously thought. Mamenchisaurids are found only in Asia, and have the longest necks of any family of dinosaurs. PhD student Tetsuto Miyashita, who worked on the team that discovered the dinosaur, believes the mamenchisaurids diversified biologically as other long necked dinosaurs became extinct. Although he is unsure why these dinosaurs remained only in Asia, he believes that it could be due to geographic isolation (1).
Qijianglong is now temporarily on display in a local museum but will be moved to a larger city museum that is currently under construction.
Source:
1. Condon K (28 Jan 2015) Long-necked ‘dragon’ discovered in China. Retrieved March 4, 2015, from http://uofa.ualberta.ca/news-and-events/newsarticles/2015/january/long-necked-dragon-discovered-in-china