Massive dinosaur fossils found in SW China

Chinese archaeologists have unearthed many dinosaur fossils in Huili county of Southwest China's Sichuan province, the West China Metropolis Daily reported Monday.

The exploration from Oct 30 to Dec 10 in 2014 was jointly organized by the Cultural Relic Management Institute of Huili County, the Dinosaur Museum of Zigong City, and the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP) under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The fossils were buried beneath a thin layer of soil and were seriously weathered. The best preserved one was about 45 percent complete.

Archaeologists said the fossils belong to a type of plant-eating sauropod dinosaur that lived between the late stage of the Early (Lias) Jurassic period (206-180 million years ago) and the early stage of the Middle (Dogger) Jurassic period (180-154 million years ago).

Since the 1970s, fossils have been discovered at more than 20 sites in the county. Local residents also found fossils while building houses or farming.

You Hailu, a researcher at the IVPP, said China's study of dinosaurs originated with fossils unearthed in Lufeng, Yunnan province and Zigong, Sichuan province, dating back to two stages of the Jurassic period.

Peng Guangchao, former curator of the Dinosaur Museum of Zigong City, said the Huili dinosaur could represent the transition between dinosaurs in Lufeng and Zigong.

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