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Dinosaur fossil found deep underground in drill core in northern China
The Star • • science
Key Points:
- Scientists discovered dinosaur fossils 473.2 meters underground in a drill core from a copper survey in Inner Mongolia, China, dating back about 120 million years to the Early Cretaceous period.
- The rare find includes parts of a juvenile dinosaur's rib, tail vertebrae, and bony arches, resembling the bird-hipped Psittacosaurus, a small plant-eating dinosaur common in East Asia.
- The fossils feature unusual tiny holes on the tail bones, possibly for blood vessels and nerves, though their exact significance remains unclear due to the dinosaur's young age.
- This discovery highlights the potential for drill cores used in mining to reveal significant paleontological information about ancient ecosystems.
- The specimen, collected by the Inner Mongolia Museum of Natural History, will be publicly displayed, adding valuable insights into the diversity of dinosaur species in the Bayan Gobi Formation.
