New Chinese sauropod finds

["bh480@scn.org" <bh480@scn.org>]

From: Ben Creisler bh480@scn.org

In case these news items about Chinese sauropods have not been mentioned
yet.... It appears there is a new  larger specimen (new species?) of
Mamenchisaurus and a new Chinese species of Diplodocus (or more likely a
new diplodocoid genus).  I can't vouch for the accuracy of every detail in
a translated popular news stories, however. 


http://english.people.com.cn/200608/25/eng20060825_296808.html
Diplodocus fossils found in NW China

Chinese archeologists 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. 

"Diplodocus fossils have been spotted chiefly in the southern hemisphere,
and this is the first time diplodocus bones are found in Asia," Xu Xing
noted. "The findings are of great importance as it may help enlighten us on
patterns and processes of continental drift." It is learned that the
continents on Earth were originally joined in the early Jurassic period and
began falling apart gradually in the mid and late Jurassic period, in
accordance with the plate movement theory. The fossils of Diplodocus
spotted in Ningxia had precisely existed during that period oftime. But
this is the type of Diplodocus fossils that people have never spotted in
the northern hemisphere before. 

The excavation site in Changji, located in southeastern Junggar Basin in
Xinjiang and about 370 km from the city of Urumqi, is a classic dinosaur
research site, popularly known as "dinosaur valley," where scientists made
a number of major discoveries. In 1928, an ace palaeontologist named Prof.
Yuan Fuli unearthed a piece of lystrosaurus fossil in Qitai County of the
present Changji Hui Autonomous Prefecture near the "dinosaur valley". That
lystrosaurus fossil has remained the only one that has been spotted in Asia
so far. In 1987, a Sino-Canadian joint research team discovered Asia's
largest dinosaur fossil "mamenchisaurus sinocanadorum" near Jiangjun Gobi
desert in Changji. In 2002, Xu Xing and his peers from Washington
University, U.S. found the earliest tyrannosaur fossil in this area. 

The excavation site of the diplodocus fossil is less than 200 meters off
the exploration site for large sauropod fossils that was excavated in 2001.
According to experts, the earlier excavation only unearthed dinosaur spine
fossils, and scientists are possibly able to spot dinosaur skull fossils in
the current excavation. 

By People's Daily Online 

http://english.people.com.cn/200608/28/eng20060828_297521.html
Asia's longest dinosaur fossil found in Xinjiang       


A bone from a recently unearthed Mamenxi dinosaur has broken the Asian
record for the longest fossil. 

Scientists found the fossil while on an archaeological dig to recover the
dinosaur in China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. 

The neck of the Mamenxi dinosaur is 15 meters long and is the largest
dinosaur fossil in the world. Based on the size of its neck, scientists
believe the dinosaur was 35 meters long, living up to its name as the
longest dinosaur in Asia. 

Before this discovery, the longest dinosaur fossil belonged to the Zhongjia
Mamenxi dinosaur, which was found just hundreds of meters away from
Mamenxi. 

By People's Daily Online 

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-08/26/content_5009863.htm
Fossils of new dinosaur species unearthed in Ningxia 
 YINCHUAN, Aug. 26 (Xinhua) -- The Muslim farmer from the northwest China's
Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region had never thought in his wildest dream that
he could become discoverer of the so-called "national treasure", excavation
of which was televised live to all Chinese people by the China Central
Television (CCTV) on Saturday afternoon. 

    Ma Yun had been catching hedgehogs on a hill of the Lingwu City in
April 2004, when he came up with a "brown stone", the diameter of which is
some 20 centimeters. He believed that the stone resembled an enormous "limb
of some animal", but none of his acquaintances he dragged to the spot was
convinced, until five months later he contacted the Lingwu Bureau of
Cultural Relics and was told the "stone" could be something more precious:
fossil of dinosaur. 

    "I have guessed that," said the contented farmer, who was so excited to
appear on TV that he cut his long hair. 

    It was the maiden live broadcast of dinosaur fossil excavation in
China. Fossils of a new dinosaur species were being unearthed in the Lingwu
City of northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, while hundreds of
kilometers away in the Changji Hui Autonomous Prefecture of northwest
China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Asia's largest Mamenchisaurus
came out of the ground. 

    "We make this live broadcast because the fossils are so precious," said
Xu Xing, 37-year-old archaeologist and researcher with the Institute of
Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of
Sciences (CAS), who was invited as guest by CCTV. 

    Eight sauropods, or huge, long-necked herbivorous dinosaurs living in
the middle Jurassic period some 160 million years ago, were unearthed in a
3,000-square meter area in Lingwu, said professor Xu.

 Twenty-eight teeth lay in order on the ground. Xu noted that as kull might
be underneath. 

    Experts have also found a 1.1-meter-tall backbone, the biggest ever
excavated in Asia. 

    Professor Xu, who has named 15 new dinosaur species, believes that the
dinosaur is a sub-species of diplodocus, mainly found in the southern
hemisphere in places like Tanzania and Argentina. Other diplodocus fossils
have been found in North America. 

    Discovery of the species in Asia could support the Continental Drift
Theory, according to which the African, American and Asian continents used
to be connected, Xu said. 

    The fossils could also help experts make out the geological change of
northwest China, as Xu noticed some bones had been washed away in this arid
area. He believed that the spot might be a delta millions of years ago. 

    Sauropod used to be the biggest dinosaur on land in the Jurassic
period. They could grow up to 40 meters long and over 100tons heavy. 

    More fossils could be found at the spot, said experts. 

    Questions are raised over death of the mammoth creature. "It is rare to
find so many dinosaurs, with varying sizes, dead together," said Mo Jinyou,
professor with the Guangxi Natural Museum who helped with the excavation in
Lingwu. Mo guessed that death of the dinosaurs could be caused by some
"unnatural reasons". 

    The fossils will be preserved on the spot, where a museum shall be
built, according to Wang Jun, vice director with the Publicity Department
of Lingwu.
Meanwhile, a national geological park featuring wood and dinosaur fossils
opened in Changji in Xinjiang on Saturday, where the largest dinosaur in
Asia has just been unearthed. 

    The dinosaur, 35 meters in length, is five meters longer than the
current "No. 1 dinosaur in Asia", which was discovered by a Sino-Canadian
archaeological team in 1987 and displayed in the Natural Museum in Beijing. 

    In 1902, China dug out its first dinosaur fossil in northeastern
Heilongjiang Province. In 1979, a cluster of dinosaur fossils was found in
southwestern Sichuan Province's Zigong City, where located a dinosaur
museum and now houses the complete fossils of more than 100 dinosaurs. 

    At present, the amount of dinosaur fossils unearthed in China is the
third largest in the world. They have been classified into over 100
categories. 

    Experts are asking the public to suggest names for the dinosaurs. Many
people believed that the dinosaur in Lingwu should be named after the
discoverer Ma Yun. 

    While Ma Yun has named his son as "Xiao Long", which is the name of a
kind of dinosaur, after his discovery. "It is the tallest dinosaur," he said
 



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