NEW YORK — A Long Island scientist made what was literally a GIANT discovery, dating back to some of the oldest creatures to ever walk this earth.
A new analysis of fossils has revealed some incredible discoveries about a particular type of dinosaur, called Mamenchisaurus sinocanadorum.
The big new reveal: His neck was nearly 50 feet long. For comparison, it is longer than a school bus and about six times the size of a giraffe’s neck.
Stony Brook paleontologist Dr. Drew Moore has spent the past year using CT technology to study three fossils found in China in the 1980s. Each fossil is a piece of the dinosaur’s neck vertebrae.
“I was able to produce this 3D model that allows us to better study its anatomy,” Moore told our sister network. NBC New York.
Those vertebrae helped Moore and his colleagues paint a picture of a dinosaur with what is believed to be the longest neck of any living creature. An artist’s rendering shows what the dinosaur might have looked like when it roamed the earth 162 million years ago.
“These are the largest herbivores that have ever lived,” Dr. Moore said. “Having a long neck allows them to plant themselves in one spot and graze anywhere in that feed envelope.”
Moore says his research will continue to understand the mysteries of these extinct giants.
“Just fill your imagination with what it looked like for this animal to live, breathe and move in its environment,” he said.
