China: Finding new dinosaur fossils

New dinosaur fossils belong to a group of feathered dinosaurs called oviraptors. It was officially named Huanansaurus ganzhouensis.

Finding new dinosaur fossils in China

The genus name refers to Huanan, meaning southern China , because dinosaurs were discovered in the Ganzhou area of ​​Jiangxi Province. Species name refers to the localities of Ganzhou.

Huanansaurus ganzhouensis is a small bipedal dinosaur with a parrot-like beak and its skull crest - (Photo: Sci-News)

Huanansaurus ganzhouensis fossil skeleton with an almost complete skull was discovered and analyzed in collaboration with archaeologists from Uppsala University in Sweden, Geological Institute and Ha Nam Geological Museum in Central Korea, Hokkaido University in Japan and the Institute of Geosciences and Minerals in Korea.

Scientists wrote in Scientific Reports that, besides the nearly preserved skull, there are also seven neck vertebrae, three lower burners in a state of fracture, the upper four are still quite intact.

In addition, they also collected parts of the arm bone, cylindrical bone, rotating bone and full arms of the right arm, left hand, a small part of the far end of the right femur bone, the proximal end of the tibia bone.

Sci-News quoted scientists as saying that Huanansaurus ganzhouensis was a small bipedal with a parrot-like beak and its skull crested. But, it has a different jaw structure than most oviraptorid dinosaurs.

This new dinosaur is a cousin of Mongolian Citipati and lived during the Late Cretaceous , about 72 million years ago.