A long-necked dinosaur called Diplodocus is often seen in movies like Jurassic World.

Its neck is about 7.5 meters long,Lived in western North America at the end of the Jurassic Period, dating back to 150 to 147 million years ago.

Diplodocus

But recent research has found that around 160 million years ago, during the late Jurassic period, a strange dinosaur roamed the landscape of China: Mamenxi Dragon, known for its long neck.

Recently, a team of Chinese and foreign scientists used computed tomography to analyzeA specimen of Mamenxi found in China had a neck length of 15 meters, six times longer than that of a giraffe.

It may have had the longest neck of any known dinosaur, according to scientists. The study was published recently in the Journal of Systematic Paleontology.

Mamenxisaurus is a sauropod dinosaur with a body length of more than 20 meters, even 30 meters. It is known for its very long neck, which is almost half of its entire body length.

The Mamenxi dinosaur fossil was first discovered in China in 1987, but it was an incomplete skeleton, making it difficult for scientists to determine the dinosaur's overall size.

In 2012, scientists found a fossil of a dinosaur close relative of Mamenxi, called Shanshan Xinjiang Superdragon, in Xinjiang, which had a complete neck.

The researchers used a technique called computed tomography and compared Mamenxiosaur with Xinjiang Megasaurus, eventually calculating the length of Mamenxiosaur's neck, which was 15 meters long.

Why the need for such a long neck?

Scientists think it's an evolutionary feeding strategy that allows it to sweep away a large area of food without having to move around.

But a long neck can come with some problems, like how it works mechanically, and it takes a lot of muscle to support it and keep it stable.