Mamenchisaurus facts for kids
Quick facts for kids MamenchisaurusTemporal range: Upper Jurassic
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Mamenchisauridae
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Mamenchisaurus
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Mamenchisaurus was a giant, plant-eating dinosaur that lived a very long time ago. It was a type of sauropod, known for its incredibly long neck and tail. Imagine a dinosaur as long as two school buses!
This amazing dinosaur had one of the longest necks of any known dinosaur. Its neck could reach about 46 feet (14 meters) long. That's longer than a typical school bus! This super-long neck had 19 bones, called vertebrae, which is more than almost any other dinosaur.
Mamenchisaurus was also very big overall. It grew to be about 70 to 80 feet (21 to 25 meters) long. It weighed around 12 tons (11 tonnes), which is as heavy as two large elephants!
Its back legs were longer than its front legs, similar to another long-necked dinosaur called Diplodocus. However, Mamenchisaurus had a box-shaped head, which was different from Diplodocus' longer, narrower snout.
Images for kids
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A skeleton of M. jingyanensis at the Beijing Museum of Natural History.
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An artist's idea of what M. youngi might have looked like.
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A fossil specimen of Mamenchisaurus.
See also
In Spanish: Mamenchisaurus para niños
