Why did dinosaurs have such long necks ?

...Are you serious? Like, really? Jesus Christ, they had long necks to reach the tops of trees and eat the leaves and fruit and ****, LIKE GIRAFFES, I can't, I don't even, why, what, why.

thats what i thought too. makes more sense

Their necks really are to long to just go to the tops of trees, and they couldn't hold their necks like a giraffe, the bone structure isn't there. The wouldn't been able to rais and lower their necks, and go side to side a bit. But the images showing them with their necks up straight, or gracefully dipping like a swan's are just artistic license.

This makes sense to me. They would need to move as little as possible, so a long neck allowed them to "lawn mower" a much larger area without moving their body. Also it is a known fact that many dinosaus swallowed stones to help grind up their food, just as turkeys, ostriches and other large birds do today. So they would not have to chew as much as an elephant based on that anyway. They were already seriously larger then the next lower down types of dinosaur, so they would not have needed a super-long neck if they only wanted to eat leaves that other animals could not reach.

This makes sense to me. They would need to move as little as possible, so a long neck allowed them to "lawn mower" a much larger area without moving their body. Also it is a known fact that many dinosaus swallowed stones to help grind up their food, just as turkeys, ostriches and other large birds do today. So they would not have to chew as much as an elephant based on that anyway. They were already seriously larger then the next lower down types of dinosaur, so they would not have needed a super-long neck if they only wanted to eat leaves that other animals could not reach. lets see most anim... [More]

It is pretty well known that sauropod and other dinosaurs did ingest stones to aid in digestion. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gastrolith Some extinct animals such as sauropod dinosaurs appear to have used stones to grind tough plant matter.