Dinosaur village offers new body of evidence

Email|Print|Comments       twitter     facebook     Sina Microblog     reddit    

(China Daily)

Scientists are conducting research on a site where an earlier generation of paleontologists had first begun their work, with the hope of unveiling more of the story from the Late Cretaceous period, Cheng Yingqi reports

The village of Jingangkou, 10 km southeast of Laiyang, Shandong province, is like any farming community. Houses dot the landscape of green patchwork fields. Vegetables grow in the lush soil. But the mountains surrounding the village hold an archeological treasure - large bleached bones. After two months of digging in the red mountainous terrain, paleontologists have excavated more than 200 dinosaur bones since July. "The soil of Laiyang has preserved the most complete remains of dinosaurs living from the Late Cretaceous period (100 to 66 million years ago)," said Wang Xiaolin, a professor of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

"And what makes this site so important is that it is one of the few sites that are rich both in dinosaurs and in dinosaur eggs."

Wang and his team have been carrying out research in Laiyang since 2008.

• Dinosaur excavations inundated in China
• Tyrannosaurs skeleton displayed in Mongolia
• New species of meat-eating dinosaur found in China
• Early flying dinosaur can catch fish: Canadian research
• Er Lian Basin Cretaceous Dinosaur National Park
• Scientists reveal ‘the last meal’ of feathered dinosaur

We Recommend

• Storms leave 97 dead, 58 missing in Mexico
• New model of indigenous surface-to-air missiles testfired
  
• 118.28-carat diamond to be auctioned in HK
• Maternal love under streetlight
• Naked foreign student sits in the middle of a road in Haikou
  
• Colorful Yunnan: Enjoy the natural beauty
  
• Harbin named Chinese city with most beautiful women
• New college students' military training in Guangzhou
  
• Rugby girls