The Hami Pterodactyl fauna in Xinjiang is the first to find large dinosaur fossils

The Hami Pterodactyl fauna in Xinjiang is the first to find large dinosaur fossils

Beijing, August 13 (Reporter Qi Fang) A Chinese-Brazilian cooperative team led by Wang Xiaolin, a researcher at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, has found the first large dinosaur fossil in the early Cretaceous pterosaur fauna in Xinjiang. These two new genera and new species of dinosaurs are named respectively: China's Silk Road Dragon and Xinjiang Hami Dragon.

The results were published online in the academic journal Scientific Reports.

Wang Xiaolin introduced that the 3 dinosaur fossils studied this time belong to the porous vertebrate dinosaurs in the sauropod class. "The fossils are incomplete, preserving a section of associated cervical vertebrae, a correlated caudal vertebrae, and a section of recommender vertebrae, as well as the teeth of a theropod dinosaur that has been preserved with the caudal vertebrae." Wang Xiaolin said, "We have established a new species of the new genus 'Chinese Silk Road Dragon' based on the characteristics of the cervical spine, and a new species of the new genus of the dragon class 'Xinjiang Hami Dragon' based on the characteristics of the tail vertebrae. ”

Porous vertebrates were a group of sauropod dinosaurs that lived from the Late Jurassic to the Late Cretaceous Period, and most of them were large , such as Argentine dragons that were more than 30 meters long. The diversity of porous vertebrates is relatively rich, and its fossils have been found on all continents around the world. However, no fossils of peoporous vertebrates have been found in the Cretaceous strata of Xinjiang.

The fossil specimens studied are all produced in the equivalent layers of the Hami Pterodactyl fossil. After a series of work such as rescue collection, scientific repair and morphology, taxonomy and phylogenetic analysis, paleontologists believe that the Chinese Silk Road dragon conservatively estimated its body length to exceed 20 meters. Also preserved along with the fossils of the Chinese Silk Road dragon is a broken Jaw of Hami Pterosaur, suggesting that these largeosaur dinosaurs lived together with Hami Pterodactyl in the sky and land of the Cretaceous Period 130 to 120 million years ago.

The Xinjiang Hami Dragon has a conservative estimation of its body length to be about 17 meters. Wang Xiaolin said: "What is more interesting is that there is also a theropod dinosaur tooth preserved with the Xinjiang Hami dragon, which is also the first time that theropod dinosaur fossils have been found in the Hami pterosaur fauna. Since no tooth marks of the theropod dinosaurs have been found on the bones of the Hami dragons in Xinjiang, we are not sure whether the theropods ate the corpses of the dragons. ”

Multiple phylogenetic analyses have shown that the Chinese Silk Road dragon is closely related to the pan-legged dragons, but Wang Xiaolin admits that because the fossil specimens are relatively broken, there are many uncertain factors in the phylogenetic analysis, "such as the discovery of the Xinjiang Hami dragon, which makes the entire dragon class increase the unresolved multi-branch structure, and its own system location cannot be confirmed, requiring new fossil materials and further research."

Wang Xiaolin and his team have been working in Hami, Xinjiang for more than ten years, discovering the world's first three-dimensional preserved pterosaur egg and embryo, and achieving a number of important results in the study of pterosaurs. Wang Xiaolin said: "We found a rare Hami pterosaur fauna here, which is the largest and most abundant fossil production area of pterosaurs known in the world, and hundreds of millions of pterosaurs have flourished here. It can be said that Hami is a veritable 'Pterodactyl Eden'. We are actively promoting the planning and construction of the Pterodactyl Site Museum. ”

This discovery not only increased the diversity of the Hami pterosaur fauna, but also increased the diversity of China's early Cretaceous sauropod dinosaurs. The emergence of these two porous vertebrate dinosaurs provides new information for the evolution of this dinosaur taxon, further demonstrating the broad diversity of Asian Early Cretaceous porous vertebrate dinosaurs.

Source: Guangming Daily