An artist's illustration shows the Chinese Silk Road Dragon (left) and the Xinjiang Hami Dragon (right), in the same scene as other theropods and dinosaur species
The major discovery in Hami, Xinjiang, was confirmed by scientists to be two new dinosaur species, with only a few sections of the surface broken vertebrae bare at the excavation site, according to a new study published Thursday.
In recent years, a large number of fossils have emerged from northwest China, including Xinjiang and the Turpan-Hami Basin. These fossils include many pterosaurs (flying reptiles), well-preserved dinosaur eggs and embryos, in addition to fossil fragments belonging to the vertebrae and rib cages, scientists have tentatively determined that three belong to the new dinosaur species.
The researchers identified two specimens as new species of dinosaurs that had not been previously discovered, and named them the Chinese Silk Road Dragon (silk road means Silk Road), and the other named Xinjiang Hami Dragon, and the researchers nodded to indicate that they were found in this area. Dragons indicate that they are very large.
According to the vertebrae specimens found, the Chinese Silk Road Dragon is estimated to be about 20 meters long, and the Hami Dragon is also estimated to be 17 meters long. This length made dinosaurs almost as large as blue whales, and adult blue whales ranged in length from 23 to 30 meters, depending on whether they were in the southern or northern hemisphere.
Researchers and archaeologists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the National Museum of Brazil published their findings in the internationally renowned Scientific Reports, a journal of the Nature Publishing Group.
The painter depicts the Dragon of Hami in Xinjiang (left) and the Dragon of the Silk Road in China (right).
Fossil fragments are used to date dinosaurs to the early Cretaceous period, about 120 million to 130 million years ago. Both new species belong to the sauropod family, which has the long neck known to be evident in herbivorous dinosaurs and is the largest land animal ever created.
Also preserved with the Chinese Silk Road dragon is a broken Hami pterosaur jaw, these two dinosaurs are the first porous vertebrate dinosaurs reported in the Lower Chalk formation in Xinjiang, and the first report of non-pterosaur vertebrates in the Hami pterosaur fauna, "increasing the diversity of the Hami pterosaur fauna, but also increasing the diversity of China's early Cretaceous sauropod dinosaurs." The researchers said.
The third specimen researchers found that it was not a new species, but could be a sauropod porous vertebrate, a dinosaur group that lived from the late Jurassic to the late Cretaceous.
The researchers have made a digital model of what they have found in China over the past few decades, further revealing the diversity of East Asian sauropods, the researchers say — and while there is still debate about the relationships between species and their classification, which dinosaur family they should belong to.
China is experiencing a paleontological golden age, with exciting fossil discoveries all over the country; A well-preserved fossil of a dinosaur embryo was found earlier this year sitting on a nest with dinosaur eggs in a nest, and a new dinosaur species was discovered in northeastern China last September.