Dragon Like Dinosaur Discovered - A 50-foot "dragon" dinosaur species in China was discovered by palaeontologists. The dragon like dinosaur discovered in China was believed to have been roaming the planet 160 million years ago, during the Late Jurassic period.
Farmers digging for a fish pond in Qijiang city in the southwestern Chongqing province found the long skeleton of the dragon like dinosaur discovered in China in 2006, reports CNN.
Lida Xing, one of the members of the research team from the University of Alberta who had the dragon like dinosaur discovered told CNN that the creature was named Qijianglong the "dragon of Qijiang" since the farmers who initially found the bones thought them to be similar to Chinese mythical dragons.
The neck of the sauropod measures 25 feet long, which is half of its body length.
"As far as I know, there are no more bones in the field of this dinosaur," said team leader Phillip Currie of the University of Alberta.
The researchers digging at the site where the dragon like dinosaur discovered in China is found the head and neck of the sauropod still together. This is an uncommon occurrence because the small cranium of the dinosaur often detaches easily after its death, according to Fox News.
The findings on the dragon like dinosaur discovered in China were published earlier this week in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. The new species reportedly belongs to a group of dinosaurs called mamenchisaurids, which are known for their extremely long necks.
Most suaropod necks may make up a third of their body length, but the necks of the mamenchisaur can reach up to half. The largest known specimen's collar extends up to 59 feet.
The Qijianglong's neck vertebrae is unlike other mamenchisaurids though. The neck of the dragon like dinosaur discovered in China is filled with air, therefore making it a much lighter load to carry.
Its interlocking joints also show the creature's ability to move its neck with more ease horizontally rather than sideways. It can therefore eat from extremely tall trees in movements similar to a construction crane's. The dragon like dinosaur discovered in China are herbivores, but they are mostly immune to attacks from carnivorous dinosaurs because of their size.
"I suspect that once they were mature, they were probably immune to the attacks of predators the way elephants are today," said Currie. "However, like elephants (which are hunted in some parts of Africa by large prides of lions), they were probably never completely immune to attack. And as juveniles, there is some evidence to suggest that the adults stayed with and protected them."
The dragon like dinosaur discovered in China is reportedly the youngest addition to the mamenchisaurid group. They can only be found in Asia, but the discovery proves that there may be other species of long-necks from other continents.
"Qijianglong shows that long-necked dinosaurs diversified in unique ways in Asia during Jurassic times -- something very special was going on in that continent," Testuto Miyashita, a student at the University of Alberta PHD, said in a press release.
The skeleton of the dragon like dinosaur discovered in China is currently housed in Qijiang. However, it will be moved to a new dinosaur museum upon completion, according to The Daily Beast.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
