Sihai network

A new species of dinosaur found in Hebei is only 30 cm long

Original title: discovery of new dinosaur species! Discovery of new dinosaur species in Fengning area, Hebei Province

On November 26, Beijing time, a team of Chinese and foreign scientists announced in Beijing today that they had found a new species of megalophos in Fengning, Hebei Province, which is of great significance for us to understand the evolution of dinosaurs. The research was led by Xing Lida, associate professor of China University of Geosciences (Beijing), Niu Kecheng, executive director of Yingliang stone natural history museum, tetsuto Miyashita, doctor of University of Chicago, famous paleontologist, Philip & middot, University of Alberta, Canada; Academician Philip J. Currie and other scholars jointly studied it. The research paper was published in Cretaceous research by Elsevier publishing group.

We know that the members of the dinosaur family are not all big men, and the megalophos is a very small one. If you add a long tail to a chicken without feathers, add teeth to its mouth, and change the front end of its wings into small claws, it will become a beautiful jaw dragon. Because its body structure is so much like a bird, people thought it was a beautiful jaw dragon when Archaeopteryx bone fossils were first found.

Megalophos -- a collection of small theropods that have long been considered 'typical', including the historic megalophos and sinosaurus -- are scattered. Most of the identified members of this branch are found in the upper Jurassic strata of solenhofen islands, Germany and the lower Cretaceous Yixian Formation in western Liaoning, China. The most typical representative of the former is the American jaw dragon, which was found in 1859. It belongs to a relatively primitive small theropod, but it is the size of a hen, and a long one behind it takes up half of its length. They are thin, narrow jaw and thin neck. In addition to Europe, a large number of beautiful jaw dinosaurs have also been found in Rehe biota in western Liaoning, China. The most famous is the Chinese Dragon Bird found in 1996. It is the first dinosaur with hair found by human beings. Its discovery strongly proves the hypothesis that birds evolved from dinosaurs.

Xing Lida's team described a new species, xunmenglongyingliangis, which is dated between the above two main fossil producing strata. It is produced in the huajiying formation in North China. The generic name 'swift and violent' expresses that this small dinosaur acted quickly and had a fierce temperament. The species name 'Yingliang' pays tribute to the Yingliang stone natural history museum, which collects specimens.

Velociraptor, some friends may be familiar with the name Velociraptor. Isn't there a 'Velociraptor' in the dinosaur film Jurassic Park? Yes, but ah, this kind of dinosaur in the film should actually be called lingraptor. Its Latin scientific name is Velociraptor, which means' agile robber / Raptor '. In Chinese,' smart 'means flexible and agile. Therefore, the Chinese name' lingraptor 'is very suitable for it. At present, it has been widely recognized by the scientific and popular science circles. If it is called 'Raptor', it only translates the meaning of 'agility' and misses the point of 'robber / Raptor'. So, since the name Velociraptor has not been used, it can be used to name a new dinosaur.

The difference between Yingliang Velociraptor and other American jaw dragons is a unique bone shape. The phalanges IV-4 are longer than iv-3, and a unique combination of posterior cranial bone features, including super long legs. In phylogenetic analysis, Yingliang Velociraptor nested between Jehol and solenhofen groups, which is an important supplement to the known branching range and group diversity. In terms of stratigraphy, Yingliang Velociraptor is the earliest and the smallest species in the Asian American jaw dragon group.

Yingliang Velociraptor is a small carnivorous dinosaur living in the early Cretaceous. Its fossils are incomplete and lack the position of head. However, it can be inferred from similar dinosaurs that its total length is about 60cm, with a slender and flexible neck, a lightweight skull on it, small but sharp teeth in its mouth and curved edges, It is a deadly weapon for animals smaller than it. Moreover, thanks to its big eyes, Yingliang Velociraptor has a keen eye, which further enhances its hunting ability. In addition, the hind legs of Yingliang Velociraptor are strong and slender, which enables it to suddenly accelerate to catch small animals running at an amazing speed. When yingliangxun Raptor captured prey, even those flying insects or running lizards were in danger. The beautiful jaw dragon stretched out its long neck to catch them and crush them with its teeth.

There are still doubts in the scientific community about the habitat preference and diversity model of megalophos dinosaurs, but yingliangxun Raptor provides us with two broader possibilities or basis: (1) according to the diversity of anti bird assemblages proposed before, huajiying formation may preserve the oldest fauna in the early Cretaceous Jehol biota, The fauna is different from the late Jurassic Daohugou biota and the Yixian Formation, which produces other megalophytes. (2) Yingliang Velociraptor can be a useful calibration point for reconstructing biogeographic and stratigraphic models, and estimate the allometric growth trend of meijaw dragon branches.