Giant bird-like dinosaur fossil found
Thursday, June 14, 2007
ONE of the world's top fossil hunters unveiled a previously unknown gigantic, chicken-like dinosaur yesterday that may change evolutionary theory on prehistoric animals.
The remains of the animal, thought to have weighed 1,400kg, was discovered in a freak find by Xing Xu in the Erlian basin in Inner Mongolia, an area rich with fossils, the scientist told AFP.
The new species, named the Gigantoraptor Erlianensis, is the biggest bird-like dinosaur ever found and at a height of five metres is comparable in size to the famous Tyrannosaurus, Xing said.
The 85 million-year-old creature was 35 times heavier than other known similar species, and is thought to have had a beak and sporadic patches of feathers, according to a paper to be released in UK science journal Nature today.
"If you saw a mouse as big as a pig you would be very surprised, it is the same when we found the Gigantoraptor," Xing, from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, told reporters yesterday.
"The new dinosaur is much larger than its relatives of the similar species. We have spent a year to confirm its features and characteristics."
The find may contradict an evolutionary theory that as carnivorous dinosaurs got smaller they became more birdlike, the Nature paper said.
Xing discovered the first femur of the Gigantoraptor in 2005 during the shooting of a documentary about one of his previous finds.
The crew asked him to demonstrate how he finds fossils and during the shot, he chanced upon a section of the femur, or thigh bone.AFP
The remains of the animal, thought to have weighed 1,400kg, was discovered in a freak find by Xing Xu in the Erlian basin in Inner Mongolia, an area rich with fossils, the scientist told AFP.
The new species, named the Gigantoraptor Erlianensis, is the biggest bird-like dinosaur ever found and at a height of five metres is comparable in size to the famous Tyrannosaurus, Xing said.
The 85 million-year-old creature was 35 times heavier than other known similar species, and is thought to have had a beak and sporadic patches of feathers, according to a paper to be released in UK science journal Nature today.
"If you saw a mouse as big as a pig you would be very surprised, it is the same when we found the Gigantoraptor," Xing, from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, told reporters yesterday.
"The new dinosaur is much larger than its relatives of the similar species. We have spent a year to confirm its features and characteristics."
The find may contradict an evolutionary theory that as carnivorous dinosaurs got smaller they became more birdlike, the Nature paper said.
Xing discovered the first femur of the Gigantoraptor in 2005 during the shooting of a documentary about one of his previous finds.
The crew asked him to demonstrate how he finds fossils and during the shot, he chanced upon a section of the femur, or thigh bone.AFP
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