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Analong

Say it: AN-ah-long

Name means: “long from A'na (the village where it was found)”1

Ate: PlantsLong-necksMiddle Jurassic

Analong was a long-necked, plant-eating dinosaur that lived in what is now China. It was one of the earliest members of the mamenchisaur family, a group of sauropods with extra-long necks.1

Lived

171 to 168 million years ago4

Middle Jurassic

Fossils found in

A'na Village, Chuanjie Town (now Konglongshan Town), Lufeng County, Yunnan Province, China1

Food

Plants4

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

cool stuff

Fun facts

Analong was named in 2021 after scientists realized that a skeleton previously thought to be a different dinosaur (Chuanjiesaurus) was actually a new species.1

The bones of Analong were found still lying in the ground at Lufeng Dinosaur Valley, where visitors can see them on display.1

Analong lived about 170 to 168 million years ago, during the Middle Jurassic Period, in a place that was once a playa lakebed.2

Analong is the earliest branching member of the mamenchisaur family, meaning it split off from other mamenchisaurs earlier than any other known species.1

The hip bone (pubis) of Analong was unusually wide at its lower end, about 40% of its total length, which is the widest among all mamenchisaurs.1

AI-made picture of Analong — An AI-made picture of how Analong might have looked, made by a computer from what scientists know. It is a guess: the real animal may have looked different, and nobody knows its true colours.

you asked

Most asked questions about Analong

?How big was Analong?

Scientists have not published a full size estimate for Analong, but it was a giant sauropod dinosaur. Its skeleton includes 11 neck vertebrae, 8 back vertebrae, and a complete left forelimb, so it was probably large, like other mamenchisaurs.3 1

?What did Analong eat?

Analong was a plant-eating dinosaur. It was a sauropod, so it ate plants like ferns and conifers that grew in its Middle Jurassic home.3 4

?When did Analong live?

Analong lived about 170 to 168 million years ago, during the Middle Jurassic Period.3 1

?Is Analong a dinosaur?

Yes, Analong is a dinosaur. It is a mamenchisaurid sauropod, which is a type of long-necked, plant-eating dinosaur.3 4

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For dino experts

Scientific name: Analong
Named by: Ren et al. 20214
Group: Long-necks
Family / clade: Mamenchisauridae4
Classification: Sauropodomorpha > Sauropoda4
Age of the rocks: 171 to 168 million years (Bajocian)4
Rock formations: Chuanjie4
Countries: China4
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database4
Discovery: Analong was named by Xin-Xin Ren and colleagues in 2021. The skeleton was collected from a quarry near A'na Village in Yunnan, China, by W. Tao in 1985 and 1995.4 2

Where the facts come from

A revision of the referred specimen of Chuanjiesaurus anaensis Fang et al., 2000: a new early branching mamenchisaurid sauropod from the Middle Jurassic of China (ivpp.cas.cn)
PBDB Collection (paleobiodb.org)
Analong (en.wikipedia.org)
Analong in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.

Every fact on this page has a number that points to its source. If we got something wrong, sorry, we are dino fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.

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