Back in the late 1980s, fragments of a skull, as well as several ribs and vertebrae of a previously unknown species, were discovered in China. The dinosaur was named «Mamenchisaurus», but only recently has research by American scientists made it possible to establish that these animals had the longest neck among all known species.
More than four thousand walruses set up a haul-out in the northwest of Yamal According to paleontologists' estimates, the average neck length of an adult was 10 meters, but there were also specimens whose necks reached 15 meters in length. Their enormous size allowed the animals to feed on tree foliage. Moreover, the special structure of the skeleton protected the mamenchisaurs from fractures and other injuries.
Interestingly, the giants' necks were not particularly mobile. The scientists note: «A biomechanical analysis of the Mamenchisaurus neck shows that it could be raised only at a relatively small angle from the horizontal, just 20–30 degrees».
