Dinosaur - Mamenchisaurus jingyanensis

Author(s)

Jen Cork
Updated

24/11/20
Read time

2 minutes

Fast Facts

Classification

Family

Euhelopodidae
Size Range

gigantic
Feeding Habits

herbivore
View Fossil Record

Fossil Record

Jurassic Period
(205 million years ago - 141 million years ago)

Cretaceous Period
(141 million years ago - 65 million years ago)

Introduction

Mamenchisaurus jingyanensis was a gigantic herbivore that lived around 150 million years ago and had one of the longest necks of all known dinosaurs.

Identification

Mamenchisaurus jingyanensis had:

a nine-metre-long neck to help it reach leaves high up in trees;
hollows in its neck bones to reduce the weight of its neck;
a large and powerful heart to pump blood to the head;
strong and thick blood vessels to cope with its high blood pressure;
thick pads of fibrous tissues on its heels to help cushion its great weight

Feeding and diet

Mamenchisaurus jingyanensis was a gigantic herbivore.

Fossils description

Mamenchisaurus is named after Mamen Brook, in Sichuan where it was first found.

Evolutionary relationships

Mamenchisaurus jingyanensis was a sauropod belonging to the Chinese family Euhelopodidae, a group of massive dinosaurs that lived from the Late Jurassic to the Early Cretaceous.