Qianlong Shouhu : Unknown Dinosaur Species
Researchers in China recently discovered a previously unknown dinosaur species named ‘Qianlong shouhu’ alongside dozens of its unhatched eggs.
- Alongside the adult specimens, the Chinese researchers also uncovered around 50 fossilised eggs of the same species, spread out across five different nests that contained the skeletal remains of the embryos inside them.
- The discoveries may represent the earliest known fossil record of adult dinosaurs and their associated egg nests.
- Qianlong Shouhu belongs to a group of dinosaurs known as sauropodomorphs, which contains sauropods and their ancestors.
- It lived in what is now China during the Early Jurassic epoch, between 200 and 193 million years ago.
- The name of the new species roughly translates to “a dragon in Guizhou that protects its embryos.”
- It was a medium-sized sauropodomorph that measured roughly 20 feet in length and likely weighed 1 tonne.
- Their eggs were elliptical in shape and relatively small.
- The eggshells may have had a texture similar to leather. It provides “strong evidence” for the earliest known “leathery” eggs.
