Large dinosaur fossils have been found in the Hami pterosaur fauna in Xinjiang, one of which is named the Chinese Silk Road Giant Dragon

Beijing News Express (reporter Zhang Lu) Chinese researchers have found large dinosaur fossils for the first time in the Hami pterosaur fauna in Xinjiang, and the relevant paper was published online on August 12 in Scientific Reports, an international academic journal owned by Nature.

It is reported that the 3 dinosaur fossils studied this time belong to the porous vertebrates of the sauropod class, and the researchers named the newly discovered dinosaurs as the Chinese Silk Road Dragon and the Xinjiang Hami Dragon.

Ecological restoration map of the Chinese Silk Road Dragon (left) and the Xinjiang Hami Dragon (right) and Hami Pterodactyl fauna. Creation / Zhao Chuang, Scientific Guidance / Wang Xiaolin

New fossils have been found in the Hami pterosaur fauna in Xinjiang

Since 2006, the Hami scientific expedition team led by Wang Xiaolin, a researcher at the Institute of Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (Institute of Paleovertebrates) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, has continuously conducted scientific research in the Hami Gobi and discovered a rare group of Hami pterosaur fauna, which has become the world's largest and most abundant pterosaur fossil production area, hundreds of millions of pterosaurs once flourished here, is a veritable pterosaur Eden. At present, it has become the Hami Pterodactyl-Yadan National Geopark, and the planning and construction of the Geopark and the Pterodactyl Site Museum are being promoted.

Researchers have also found a large number of fossilized 3D pterosaur eggs and pterosaur embryos. Through research, researchers believe that Hami pterosaur has a rapidly growing skeletal structure, can not fly after birth, but still need parents to take care of, these findings and studies reveal the life history of this special flying reptile. Through fieldwork and evidence from disciplines such as stratigraphy, researchers believe that these huge numbers of pterosaurs experienced multiple Cretaceous lake storm events, resulting in the death of their clusters and rapid burial.

Although in the same era as the dinosaurs, pterosaurs were not dinosaurs. According to Wang Xiaolin, head of the Hami Scientific Expedition Team of the Institute of Paleovertebrates, the sauropod dinosaur fossils studied this time were found in the Tugulu group of lower Cretaceous, about 130 million to 120 million years ago, and the fossils of Hami Pterosaur were preserved in symbiosis, which is the first non-pterosaur vertebrate fossil found in the Hami Pterodactyl fauna, and the production sites of the three specimens are about 2 km -5 km apart.

He said that due to the long-term exposure of fossils to the Gobi region of extremely arid and strong winds and sands, the surface weathering was severely broken, and the scientific expedition team carried out rescue collection in 2008, 2013 and 2016 respectively.

Porous vertebrates, an oversized family of sauropods

Porous vertebrates are a group of sauropod dinosaurs that lived from the late Jurassic to the late Cretaceous period, with a relatively rich variety, and their fossils have been found on all continents around the world. Most of the porous vertebrates were large , such as Argentine dragons , which were more than 30 meters long.

The main features of the porous vertebrates include the long neck and forelimbs, with at least 15 cervical vertebrae, unlike the lepidosaurs with extremely long tails and shorter forelimbs; the teeth are rod-shaped, unlike the spoon-like teeth of the brachiosaurus.

In recent years, the fossils of porous vertebrates have been found and reported in the Cretaceous strata of some places in China, which are mainly distributed in Gansu, Henan, Shandong, Liaoning, Guangxi and other places. Previously, no fossils of peoporous vertebrates have been found in the Cretaceous strata of Xinjiang, and the only sauropod dinosaur is a similar Asian dragon found in the Cretaceous Tugulu group under the Junggar Basin, and its taxonomic location and naming validity are still controversial due to fragmentation of specimens.

The new dinosaurs were named the Chinese Silk Road Dragon and the Xinjiang Hami Dragon

Due to the extremely serious weathering of the exposed surface of the fossils, only part of the surface of the broken vertebrae remained in the three specimens, and after the rescue collection, the technicians of the scientific expedition team carried out scientific repairs on the other side of the surface that was still buried in the rock and was not exposed. "We packed the specimens back in plaster, removed the rocks around the bones, and carefully repaired them under a microscope to expose the bones intact and clearly." Wang Xiaolin said.

After repair, it was revealed that the three specimens were 6 associated cervical vertebrae and cervical ribs, 7 associated tail vertebrae and a broken recommended vertebrae, of which the first two specimens were named Chinese Silk Road Dragon and Xinjiang Hami Dragon respectively. According to the researchers, the name represents the origin of the fossil and the huge size of this type of dinosaur. Hami is an important town in the "Belt and Road" Silk Road Economic Belt, and this time it is named after fossils to commemorate China's Silk Road connecting the world.

The total length of the 6 cervical vertebrae of the Chinese Silk Road Dragon is about 3 meters, which is nearly 2 times the average length of the cervical vertebrae corresponding to the early Cretaceous Shishi's Pan-footed Dragon (body length of about 15 meters) found in Mengyin, Shandong, China, and researchers conservatively estimate that the body length of the Chinese Silk Road Dragon is more than 20 meters. Also preserved with the Chinese Silk Road dragon is a broken Jaw of Hami Pterodactyl, indicating that largeosaur-like dinosaurs lived with Hami Pterodactyl in the sky and land of the Cretaceous Period.

Researchers conservatively estimate that the body length of the Xinjiang Hami dragon is about 17 meters. Also preserved with the Xinjiang Hami giant dragon is a theropod dinosaur tooth, which is also the first reported theropod dinosaur fossil in the Hami pterosaur fauna. Sauropods are all four-legged plant-eating, and the discovery and study of these large plant-eating dinosaurs and carnivorous theropods has increased the species and ecological diversity of the Hami pterosaur fauna.

Beijing News reporter Zhang Lu

Edited by Bai Shuang Proofreader Wei Zhuo