World's largest dinosaur fossil field discovered in Shandong

Scientists in east China's Shandong province have discovered what they think could be the world's largest dinosaur fossil field.

So far, the site located in Zhucheng city has produced 7,600 fossils, and more are expected to be found, Zhao Xijin, a paleontologist from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, told Xinhua.

Not only is the field significant in terms of its vast quantity of fossils, but also in the evolutionary sense, as it may help provide an answer as to why dinosaurs disappeared, Zhao said.

Most of the fossils in the area date from the Late Cretaceous of the Mesozoic Period, when dinosaurs became extinct, Xinhua writes.

In the 1960s, a number of duck-billed hadrosaurus fossils were discovered in the area during an oil expedition. The largest one, discovered two decades later, is currently on display in the local museum. Since then, more than 50 tons of fossils have been unearthed there, according to Xinhua.

Last March, several fossil fields were discovered in the towns of Longdu, Shunwang, Jiayue and Zhigou during mining expeditions. The Longdu field alone has so far yielded more than 3,000 fossils, one of them being a 2-meter-long skull of a large ceratopsian, the first one discovered outside of North America, Xu Xing, a researcher from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, told Xinhua.

New genera of ankylosaurus, tyrannosaurus and ceolurus have also been found in the area, Xu said.

According to Zhao, in the time of the dinosaurs, the area might have had abundant water resources and grasslands, which made it an ideal habitat for duck-billed dinosaurs. Researchers say that a volcanic eruption could have caused the dinosaurs' extinction, and that a subsequent flood could have brought the fossils to the current site.

China, which has seen a rapid rise in the number of rare fossils unearthed on its territory in recent years, is facing a growing smuggling problem. Last January, hundreds of kilograms of Chinese dinosaur fossils were recovered from warehouses and cargo containers in sting operations in Australia, according to Reuters.

Excavation in Shandong has been suspended for the winter months, but will resume in the spring, Reuters says. A report of the findings will be published at the end of next year, Zhao said.

Shandong has plans to build a fossil park on the site.

Textsource: Xinhua, Reuters