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Fossil
of New Genus Dinosaur Discovered
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????A group of Chinese
paleontologists on Thursday announced that they have discovered
some fossils that belong to a new genus of dinosaur.
????They have named the new genus as "Inner
Mongolia Dinosaur."
????Zhao Xijin, a paleontologist from the Institute
of Ancient Amniotes and Ancient Humans under the Chinese Academy
of Sciences, said that the fossils were discovered in the Erlian
Basin in China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.
????"It belongs to the sickle-shaped dinosaur,
but is not similar with those that already have been discovered,"
Zhao said.
????He and his group estimated that the neck of
the dinosaur was about 0.7 meters, "however, the other sickle-shaped
dinosaurs that have already been discovered usually had short necks."
????"It had at least 14 neck vertebras,"
Zhao said, adding that its neck was the longest among those of the
same kind.
????The research on the fossils has been going
on for more than one year after they were discovered in August of
last year.
????According to the scientists, the newly discovered
dinosaur lived some 80 million years ago and was a kind of moderate
or small sized polyphagia dinosaur, about 2 meters long and less
than one meter high, with a narrow long head and neck, hook-shaped
claws, wiry teeth and lanky tail.
????The Erlian Basin is located in the north border
area between China and Mongolia. It is rich in oil resources and
is the place where the first dinosaur fossil was found in 1893.
(China Daily 11/24/2000)
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