BEIJING: A new dinosaur species discovered in China is being called “extreme”–and for good reason. The dino’s neck is so long that it makes up more than half of the creature’s huge 49-foot-long body.
The Canadian team that studied the skeleton, which was found in central China, dubbed it “Qijianglong” or “dragon of Quijang,” and noted that the creature was 50 feet long … 25 feet of which were neck. Though the announcement of a new species is fresh information, the skeleton itself has been around awhile. According to Fox News, it was discovered at a construction site in 2006:
Researchers digging at the site found its head and neck still together – a rare occurrence due to the small cranium often detaching easily after the creature’s death. Though the researchers had the bones cast and even went as far as mounting the cast skeleton in a museum, they had no idea that they’d uncovered a new species. “It had already been collected, prepared and was laid out on tables,” said the University of Alberta’s Phillip Currie. “This region of China has lots of dinosaur fossils, including skeletons, bonebeds and footprints. The preservation is quite nice, and we were asked to help describe it.”
The massive creature, an herbivore, roamed China 160 million years ago; its prodigious neck vertebrae were filled with air, meaning its length was actually manageable, and the nature of its joints meant it could move its neck horizontally to feed, “like a construction crane.”
