With some sauropods reaching length of an astonishing 40 meters ( 131 feet ) long , they were the true giants of the dinosaur age . But most have wondered , at some point or another , just how they were capable to keep their longsighted , slender necks up without breaking ? It seems thatthe result may liein the manner their backbones correspond together .
When people first start digging up sauropods 150 years or so ago , there was much debate over how sauropods looked . Many early representation placed the dinosaurs in swamps with their forefront floating above the surface , as people did n’t believe such big animals could live on land . Even the infamous Dippy the dinosaur , who once embellish the Hintze Hall of the Natural History Museum , London , had his head pointing downwardsuntil the 1960sand his fag end dragging along the level untilas tardy as 1993 .
But a new study , to be published in the journalAmeghiniana , hint that the alone style in which the dinosaur ’s vertebra fit together may aid explain the impressive strength in its super - sized back . When vertebra grow , they set out as two separate pieces – the neural arch and the centrum – which eventually fuse together , case the spinal editorial in os .
The researcher claim that the special “ zag ” or “ toothed”connection between the neural archway and the centrum on each vertebra increase the surface area , making them improbably immune to stress and increasing the weight they could take before they ’d unwrap . This is in stark contrast to mammals , for exercise , in which the two sections are join together by a flat surface .
This interesting discovery may be yet another version the tremendous beasts had that allow them to grow such over-the-top necks . Their large size really helped enable them to grow elongated necks , as together with their large mainstay - comparable leg , it give them an incredibly stable base from which to support their neck . The dinoasaur ’s head was also reduced massively in size and weight , sacrificing its ability to process nutrient .
The neck themselves were also adapted , in the main to assay and reduce weight so that less try was need to support them . While the dinosaur may have had an impressive 19 cervical vertebrae ( compared to almost all mammals that only have seven),roughly 60 percentof the pearl were actually made up of air . These Brobdingnagian air pouch significantly decoct the weight of the bone .
So while the long - neck goliath may seem ungainly and hardly possible , the docile giant clearly had a whole retinue of adaption that allowed for them to successfully inhabit every corner of the world .
