Long crack R-curve of a porous Si3N4 with aligned fibrous grains was investigated, using a chevron-notched beam technique. A crack was constrained to propagate normal to the grain alignment. The crack growth resistance of aligned porous Si3N4 was much larger compared with that of dense Si3N4 ceramics. Microstructure observations showed that pullouts of fibrous grains in aligned porous Si3N4 markedly increased during crack propagation relative to those of dense Si3N4, due to the existence of pores. The efficient grain pullouts in porous Si3N4 increased the bridging stress at the crack wake.