Mamenchisaurus is a mamenchisaurid sauropod sauropodomorph dinosaur from the Late Jurassic of China. It was named in 1954 by Chung Chien Young. It had the longest neck out of any sauropod, and it also had a unique tail.
Physiology[]
Mamenchisaurus resembled the generic sauropod, a large saurischian with a bulky body, 4 large, erect, pillar-like legs, a long tail, an long neck, and a small head. However, it did differ from the generic sauropod body plan in a few ways; for example, its neck was extremely long (considerably longer than those of other sauropods), and the tip of its tail might have been covered in a club. Its body would have been covered in scaly skin.
Diet[]
Mamenchisaurus was an herbivore, feeding on leaves from large trees. Its peg-like teeth were used to strip branches of their leaves, and its long neck and limbs allowed it to access vegetation some 15 meters in the air without rearing.
Ecology[]
Due to its extremely long neck, Mamenchisaurus was able to sweep its neck across a wide area of vegetation without having to constantly move from one area to another. This feeding strategy was often times very useful, as it would allow the mamenchisaurid to eat for a long time without expending energy once it found a suitable area for feeding. As well as this, the tip of its tail was robust and had relatively tall spinal extensions; such uniqueness would lead people to believe that the sauropod had a club on the tip of its tail. The exact use of the club is unknown; some say that it was used for communication with other members of its species, while others say that it was used for defense against predators like Yangchuanosaurus or Sinraptor.
In popular culture[]
Mamenchisaurus was featured in the 1997 science fiction movie, The Lost World: Jurassic Park. It appears near the beginning of the film, where it is chased by motorcycle-driving mercenaries alongside large herds of Parasaurolophus, Gallimimus, and Pachycephalosaurus.