Meet the gentle giants of the dinosaur world! Discover 10 amazing long neck dinosaurs, how big they grew, and why they had such super-long necks.
Quick Answer
Long neck dinosaurs are called sauropods. They were giant plant-eaters with long necks, long tails and four thick legs. Famous ones include Brachiosaurus, Apatosaurus, Diplodocus and Argentinosaurus, one of the biggest animals ever to walk on land.
Long neck dinosaurs belong to a group called sauropods (SAW-roh-pods), which means “lizard feet.” They had small heads, very long necks, big round bodies, thick legs like tree trunks and long tails.
Sauropods lived for a very long time, from about 200 million to 66 million years ago. Their fossils have been found on every continent, even Antarctica! Some were about as long as a school bus, while the biggest were longer than three school buses in a row.
All long neck dinosaurs were herbivores, which means they ate plants. Many lived in herds, and their huge size helped keep them safe from hungry meat-eaters.
Say it: BRAK-ee-oh-SAW-rus · Means: “Arm lizard”
⭐ Its front legs were longer than its back legs, like a giraffe, so it could hold its head up about 40 feet high.
Say it: ah-PAT-oh-SAW-rus · Means: “Deceptive lizard”
⭐ It had an extra-thick, strong neck. Arlo from the movie “The Good Dinosaur” is an Apatosaurus!
Read our Good Dinosaur guide →
Say it: BRON-toe-SAW-rus · Means: “Thunder lizard”
⭐ For about 100 years scientists thought Brontosaurus was really an Apatosaurus. In 2015 a big study showed it was its own dinosaur after all!
Say it: dih-PLOD-oh-kus · Means: “Double beam”
⭐ Its super-long tail may have worked like a whip. It had peg-shaped teeth only at the front of its mouth for stripping leaves.
Say it: mah-MEN-chee-SAW-rus · Means: “Mamenxi lizard (a place in China)”
⭐ The neck champion! Its neck could be about half the length of its whole body.
Say it: AR-jen-TEEN-oh-SAW-rus · Means: “Argentina lizard”
⭐ One of the biggest animals ever to walk on land. It may have weighed as much as 10 or more elephants!
Say it: PAT-ah-go-TIE-tan · Means: “Titan of Patagonia”
⭐ Its giant bones were first spotted by a worker on a farm in Argentina. It's another contender for the biggest dinosaur ever.
Say it: KAM-ah-rah-SAW-rus · Means: “Chambered lizard”
⭐ It had a boxy head and a shorter neck than its cousins. It's one of the most common long-neck fossils found in North America.
Say it: ah-MAR-gah-SAW-rus · Means: “La Amarga lizard (a place in Argentina)”
⭐ A small long-neck with two rows of tall spines running down its neck. Scientists still debate what the spines were for!
Say it: NEE-zhair-SAW-rus · Means: “Niger lizard”
⭐ It held its head low like a lawnmower and had around 500 tiny teeth!
Meet the dinosaur with 500 teeth →Here's how long each dinosaur grew, from nose to tail, compared with a 40-foot school bus. These are scientists' best estimates, since most giant dinosaurs are known from only part of a skeleton.
Reaching high leaves
Like giraffes today, a long neck let dinosaurs such as Brachiosaurus eat leaves at the tops of tall trees that other animals couldn't reach.
Eating without walking
Standing still and swinging its neck side to side, a sauropod could munch a huge area of plants. Moving such a giant body used lots of energy, so this saved effort.
Light, air-filled bones
Their neck bones were full of air pockets, a bit like a bird's. That kept the neck light enough to lift, even when it was longer than a bus.
🦒 Fun comparison: a giraffe's neck is about 6 feet long. Some long neck dinosaurs had necks over 30 feet long, more than five giraffe necks end to end!
Print a long neck dinosaur to color in. They're free for personal and classroom use.
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Long neck dinosaurs are called sauropods (SAW-roh-pods). The name means “lizard feet.” Famous sauropods include Brachiosaurus, Apatosaurus, Brontosaurus, Diplodocus and Argentinosaurus.
Mamenchisaurus is famous for having one of the longest necks of any animal ever. In some kinds of Mamenchisaurus, the neck was about half the length of the whole body, and over 30 feet long.
Argentinosaurus and Patagotitan, both from Argentina, are among the biggest dinosaurs ever found. They could grow to around 115 to 120 feet long, about as long as three school buses in a row.
No. Long neck dinosaurs were herbivores, which means they only ate plants. They munched on leaves, ferns and conifer trees, and they had to eat a huge amount every day to fuel their giant bodies.
Yes! For many years scientists thought Brontosaurus was the same animal as Apatosaurus. In 2015, a big study of sauropod bones found enough differences to make Brontosaurus its own dinosaur again.
Arlo, the hero of Pixar's “The Good Dinosaur,” is an Apatosaurus, a long neck plant-eater from North America.
Image credits: Brachiosaurus, Apatosaurus, Argentinosaurus and Nigersaurus are original Puffsaurus artwork. Via Wikimedia Commons: Brontosaurus by TotalDino (CC0); Diplodocus by Dmitry Bogdanov (CC BY 3.0); Mamenchisaurus and Camarasaurus by Connor Ashbridge (CC BY 4.0); Patagotitan by UnexpectedDinoLesson (CC BY 4.0); Amargasaurus by Nobu Tamura (CC BY 3.0).
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