Recently, a new dinosaur fossil site was discovered in Chuanjie Township, Lufeng County, Yunnan Province, a famous dinosaur-producing region in my country. Within the excavated 400 square meters, preliminary statistics show that the exposed dinosaur fossils include one carnivorous theropod skeleton and eight giant herbivorous sauropod skeletons, one of which, measuring approximately 19 meters in length, is remarkably well-preserved. In addition, a large number of plesiosaur fossils were also found. Taphonomic analysis indicates that these animals fossilized after their bodies were transported, but the distance traveled was relatively short, thus contributing to the relatively good preservation of the fossils.
The fossils were buried in a set of purplish-red sandy mudstone, geologically belonging to the bottom of the Upper Lufeng Formation, dating from the Middle to Late Jurassic period. Scientists identified the theropod dinosaur as similar to the Yongchuanosaurus from the Upper Shaximiao Formation in Sichuan, while the sauropod belongs to the Mamenchisauridae family. Based on this, it is inferred that the newly discovered dinosaur lived around the same time as the aforementioned Sichuan dinosaurs, approximately 150 million years ago, at the end of the Middle Jurassic period.
Yongchuan Dragon
