West China Metropolis News (reporter Jia Jiao) On October 18, at the construction site of the east second section of Xiangyang Road in Longchang City, some workers found that the stone base plate contained fossils suspected of ancient organisms when cutting stone squares. From October 23 to 24, after on-site inspection and assessment by experts, it was confirmed that this was a relatively well-preserved small-medium sauropod dinosaur, and it was the first complete dinosaur fossil found in Longchang City.
It is understood that the fossil was preserved in the late Jurassic early Late Jurassic early Upper Shaxi Temple Formation in the lower part of the huge thick layer of fine-grained quartz sandstone, in a spiraling shape, estimated that its body length of about 10 meters, part of the cervical vertebrae, tail vertebrae and part of the hind limb bones have been removed with the stone, there are still part of the cervical vertebrae, dorsal vertebrae, shoulder belts, forelimbs, waist belts, hind limb bones and tail vertebral impressions are still preserved at the construction site.
According to the experts of the evaluation team, although the dinosaur is not large, the structure of the vertebral air cavity is very developed, the cervical vertebrae are short, the tail vertebrae are short and thick, and there is a big difference between the Mamenxi dragons common in the late Jurassic of the Sichuan Basin, and may belong to a new member of the new sauropods that are still relatively rare in China. Its discovery has high scientific research value for the study of phylogenetic evolution, biodiversity, paleogeographic pattern, paleoenvironmental changes of dinosaurs during the Jurassic period, and is worthy of good protection and research.
Source: West China Metropolis Daily
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