In the Early Cretaceous Hami pterosaur fauna in Xinjiang, China, about 130 to 120 million years ago, a team led by researcher Wang Xiaolin from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences Fossils of large dinosaurs related to "cousins".

  This is the first time a sauropod porphylosaurus dinosaur has been discovered in the Early Cretaceous strata in Xinjiang, and it is also the first time a dinosaur fossil has been discovered in the Hami pterosaur fauna.

The dinosaur research paper was published online in the international academic journal "Science Report" under Springer Nature on the night of August 12, Beijing time.

  On the eve of the publication of the paper, Wang Xiaolin said in an exclusive interview with a reporter from China News Agency that the three dinosaur fossils discovered in this study belonged to the sauropod porososaurus, and the fossils were incomplete, and a related cervical spine and a related relationship were preserved. The caudal vertebra and a section of the sacral vertebra. In addition, there is a theropod dinosaur tooth preserved with the caudal vertebra.

  Based on the characteristics of the cervical vertebrae and caudal vertebrae, the cooperative team established two new genus and new species of dinosaurs, Panpodas and Giantsaurus, named "Chinese Silk Road Dragon" and "Xinjiang Hami Giant Dragon", and another sacral fossil Too broken and unobvious, so it hasn't been named yet.

It is conservatively estimated that the body length of the Chinese Silk Road dragon is more than 20 meters, and the body length of the Xinjiang Hami dragon is about 17 meters.

  The study of the Chinese Silk Road Dragon and the Xinjiang Hami Dragon has not only increased the diversity of the Hami pterosaur fauna and the early Cretaceous sauropod dinosaurs in China, but also provided new information for the evolution of this dinosaur group and further supported the early Asian era. The wide variety of dinosaurs from the Cretaceous period.

(Reporter Sun Zifa produced Li Jiali)

Editor in charge: [Wang Kai]