Friday, August 25, 2006
China - Diplodocus fossils found in Ningxia
Chinese archaeologists have reported major dinosaur findings in northwest China's Ningxia Hui and Xinjiang Uygur autonomous regions. In Lingwu excavation site of Ningxia, they spotted fossils of diplodocus species that had never been unearthed in Asia before. In Changji excavation site of Xinjiang, it is possible for them to find the fossils of a whole large-size dinosaur skull, possibly a Asian record dinosaur fossil in terms of size.
Xu Xing, a researcher of the Ancient Vertebrates and Ancient Human Research Institute under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), who takes charge of the excavation, cited diplodocus as the biggest of its kind among a group of giant plant-eating dinosaurs and the longest animal inhabiting on land since the dawn of history, namely, living in the late Jurassic and early Cretaceous periods approximately 150 million years ago. Despite its mammoth body, it has a small head, with nostrils growing on top of the head.
technorati tags: chinese, dinosaur, china, ningxia, hui, xinjiang, uygur, lingwu, diplodocus, species, asia, changji, fossils, skull, ancient, vertebrates, human, research, institute, academy, sciences, excavation, jurassic, cretaceous, mammoth
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