A dinosaur fossil found in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in July 1998 has added new evidence to the idea that China is the birthplace of a dinosaur that inhabited the earth some 70 million years ago.
The new discovery will be of great value in the study of animal evolution and the extinction of dinosaurs.
The fossil is an earlier species of the dinosaur called Hadrosauridae cope. It is estimated to have been three meters high and weighed more than 10 tons. It is quite different from the previously discovered Mandschurosuarus mongoliensis and the Bactrosaurus johnsoni, the two other species of the Hadrosauridae cope, said Zhang Xiaohong, deputy director at the Research Center of Stratigraphy (geology and archaeology) and Paleontology.
"The new discovery provides more evidence to prove that the Erlian Basin, where the dinosaur fossil was excavated, may be the birthplace of the Hadrosauridae cope," said Zhao Xi, a member of the International Dinosaur Society.
Zhao has devoted more than 40 years researching dinosaur fossils.
The Erlian Basin is often referred to as the "tomb of dinosaurs." V.A. Cbruchev, a Russian geologist, first discovered dinosaur fossils there in 1893. Numerous other finds in the area have been reported.
(Xinhua)
