An important discovery was made in northwest China, where two new species of dinosaur were found. These are not the first fossils discovered in that region, although the dinosaurs represent some of the first vertebrates from this area. Previous fossils included reptiles, as well as eggs that found well-preserved.
Researchers also found in this region remains from one pterosaur as well as the theropod. The two new dinosaur species make the fauna in the area more diverse and increase “the information on Chinese sauropods”.
The dinosaur fossil fragments belong to two unknown species, which have now been named Hamititan xinjiangensis based on the region where it was found, and silu ( short for Silutitan sinensis), which translates to silk road in Mandarin. The word titan is included in their names as a reference to their massive size.
The Hamititan dinosaur is believed to be 17 meters long, while the silu specimen had around 20 meters. Based on these sizes, we can estimate that the two dinosaur species were close in size with a blue whale.
The age of the fossil fragments is from 120 to 130 million years old and the dinosaurs are both from the sauropod family. The dinosaur family consumed plants and had very long necks. Scientists believed that this particular type of dinosaur was in fact the largest animal to walk on this planet.
The discoveries made in the past decades in China offer more information on the East Asian sauropods and their diversity. Paleontology is going through one of its best eras in China, with more and more discoveries every day. In 2021 researchers also found a preserved dinosaur and a nest of eggs on which it was sitting on, containing fossilized embryos as well. Last year a new dinosaur species was also discovered in the northeast region of China.
