Workers in China blew up a big chunk of bedrock, and were stunned at one they found underneath.
Workers were in the middle of constructing a high school in southern China when they blew up a chunk of bedrock and found an incredibly well-preserved dinosaurs skeleton. Scientists are calling the amazing new find Tongtianlong limosus, and it appears to be the first example of this particular species.
The dynamite caused some damage to the fossil but fortunately it had been placed at the perfect spot to expose the fossil without destroying it. The dinosaur was found with its head sticking up and its neck arched, suggesting that it died trying to get out of a pool of mud, which turned into rock over the centuries, according to a statement from the University of Edinburgh.
The species is in the same group as Tyrannosaurs and Velociraptors, but it probably looked a lot more like a bird than its relatives. Scientists think its body would ahve been covered in feathers, and it would have even had two small wings. Its teeth and mouth had evolved into a beak-like shape, and it probably ate plants along with meat and eggs.
“The two-legged animal belongs to a family of feathered dinosaurs called oviraptorosaurs, characterised by having short, toothless heads and sharp beaks,” the statement reads. “Some, including the newly found species, had crests of bone on their heads that were probably used as display structures to attract mates and intimidate rivals, like modern-day cassowaries.
“Fossil discoveries in recent decades suggest that this group of flightless animals was experiencing a population boost, diversifying into new species, during the 15 million years before the dinosaurs went extinct. The group was probably one of the last groups of dinosaurs to diversify before the asteroid impact 66 million years ago, which killed off all of the non-bird dinosaurs.”
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