What you see in the picture is the largest animal on earth today, the blue whale, and the adult blue whale averages more than 20 meters in size and can reach a maximum length of 33 meters.
Compared to humans or other animals, this is definitely a behemoth. However, this body type, if placed in the era of dinosaurs tens of millions of years ago, may seem a bit ordinary.
Recently, the scientific research team of the Institute of Paleovertebrate Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Brazilian scientific research team have found large dinosaur fossils in the Cretaceous pterosaur fauna for the first time in the Hami Basin of Xinjiang.
A total of three fossils have been unearthed this time, all of which belong to the sauropod family, because it has been more than 120 million years ago, so some fossils are too fragmented and the characteristics are not obvious.
Two relatively clear dinosaur fossils were named "Chinese Silk Road Dragon" and "Xinjiang Hami Dragon" respectively.
Both dinosaurs are new to sauropods, and they share some of the most widely known characteristics of giant dinosaurs: herbivorous, long necks and tails, majestic bodies, and small heads.
Sauropods, typically characterized by four-legged walking, herbivorous, and large size. Because their teeth are not suitable for chewing, they will swallow food directly and swallow some stones into the stomach to help grind the food.
The common polarosaurs, brachiosaurus, confused dragons, earthquake dragons, etc. all belong to sauropod dinosaurs.
Scientists have estimated the proportion of animal fossils and believe that the Length of the Chinese Silk Road Dragon discovered this time is more than 20 meters, and the Xinjiang Hami Dragon is close to 17 meters.
This discovery can be described as significant, because this type of large dinosaurs have appeared in South America and other places in the past, why can it be found in Asia this time? Experts estimate that there is a high probability that more newly discovered species are hidden beneath the surface of the area, and there may even be nests of egg and embryonic remains.
Xinjiang Hami Basin in ancient times belongs to the dinosaur highly active area, Chinese archaeologists have found pterosaur fossils in 2008, 13 years and 16 years, but the area is a long-term extremely arid, strong wind sand Gobi region, the surface weathering effect is obvious, so the fossils found, are more seriously broken.
The sauropod dinosaurs discovered this time can actually coexist with pterosaurs, and the fossils have been preserved together, which is unexpected by experts.
You know, pterosaurs are not dinosaurs, but a kind of flying reptiles, but pterosaurs and dinosaurs are very closely related, just like "cousins" between humans.
Pterodactyls belonged to a large family, and the reason for their extinction was due to the Cretaceous period of lake storm events, that is, sudden and huge storms, which destroyed the pterosaur's lair, swept them all to the lake, and then buried.
The discovery and study of the Chinese Silk Road Dragon and the Xinjiang Hami Dragon increased the diversity of the Hami Pterodactyl fauna. The emergence of new dinosaur fossils has provided new information for the evolution of this dinosaur taxon, and also allowed experts to further restore the living environment of Cretaceous dinosaurs.