March 22, 2006 — Paleontologists recently identified a sauropod dinosaur whose neck probably stretched more than 24 feet, according to a new study.

The new dino species, Erketu ellisoni, is about eight feet shy of taking on what may be the world's longest necked dinosaur, mamenchisaurus, which had a 32-foot long neck and a body that was bigger than a school bus.

What could put the new dinosaur in the record books, however, is the length of its neck in proportion to its trunk height. Based on fossil analysis, researchers estimate that the rest of E. ellisoni's body was about 9.8 feet tall, meaning that its neck was probably over twice as long as the rest of its body.

"One other thing that is particularly interesting about this dinosaur is that it belongs at the base of the Titanosauria sauropods," said Daniel Ksepka, lead author of the study, which is published in the current issue of the journal AMNH Novitates.

Ksepka, a Columbia University graduate student working at the American Museum of Natural History, explained to Animal Planet News that Titanosauria refers to a successful group of sauropods that spread throughout the world and survived until the end of the Cretaceous Period, around 65 million years ago.

He added, "Among this group we see armored dinosaurs and all kinds of size extremes from large to small. E. ellisoni was one of the earliest species in this group and it demonstrates yet another unusual body type that these animals evolved."

So far, the researchers have collected a chest plate, two lower leg bones, a potato-sized anklebone and neck vertebrae for the newly identified beast. Each vertebra alone measures nearly two feet, or about the size of two loaves of bread stuck end to end.

Computerized tomography (CT) scans of the vertebrae reveal that they are not solid, but filled with small pneumatic chambers, like the holes in Swiss cheese. This would have reduced the neck's weight.

Additionally, some of the vertebrae were divided into two parallel tracks, similar to how the human spine is structured. The resulting channel in between the split likely once contained a ligament that helped with neck support.

Warren Allmon, director of the Paleontological Research Institution affiliated with Cornell University, told Animal Planet News that the new dinosaur is "extraordinary," not only for the length of its neck, but also because it adds to evidence suggesting that sauropods held their necks parallel to the ground.

"The images you and I grew up with that showed many dinosaurs with S-shaped necks reaching upwards, like the necks on a giraffe, were probably all wrong," Allmon said. "Based on what we now know from sauropod fossils, there is no way that such dinosaurs held their necks upright."

He explained that E. ellisoni's neck was sort of like a cantilever, with the attached ligament holding it in the seemingly headache-inducing parallel horizontal position.

Allmon added, "I also agree that the new dinosaur probably had one of the longest necks among dinosaurs, but I won't stick my own neck out on exactly how this one measures up."

All sauropods, including the new dino, were four-legged herbivores. Around 100 to 120 million years ago, E. ellisoni would have tromped around what is now Mongolia's Gobi Desert, but what was then a floodplain.

Researchers are not certain what killed the animal, but they know it was an adult when it died because some of its neck bones were fused, which only happens in mature sauropods.

Silt near what would have been a watery site landed on top of the dinosaur and preserved it, along with reptiles, birds, turtles, meat-eating dinosaurs and an unusual okra-shaped fruit that may represent a newly discovered plant species.