A rare well-preserved hadrosaur also known as duck-billed dinosaurs has been unearthed in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region and is expected to be of huge value for research into how the species evolved.
More than 90 percent of the bones of the animal were intact, including the head, cervical vertebrae, limbs and a complete tail-bone. It is the most complete dinosaur fossil unearthed in Inner Mongolia in 20 years, official media here reported.
The fossil was first dis-covered in 2012 in Urad Back Banner, in the north-west part of the region, and excavation started in June 2013. More than 300 fossil bone fragments were excavated at the site, weighing one metric tonne altogether, Tan Lin, an engineer at the Longhao Geological Institute of Paleontology in Inner Mongoli said.
Chinese researchers said the fossil structure of the hadrosaur was about 8 meters long, one meter wide and 5 metres tall. It was a mature dinosaur that lived 80 million years ago. Ten workers are restoring the fossil in a storehouse in Chengguan town, Bayannur city. The work began in May this year and is expect-ed to end in October.
Such a complete dinosaur fossil is a very rare find, Xu Xing, a researcher at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences said. It will greatly inform research into the evolution of the hadrosaur species and biology in the Rehe area, he said. Archaeologists also found fossils of other plants and living organisms in the Rehe area, which will prove invaluable in future research, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
