#Two giant new dinosaur species discovered in China

There’s a new day dawning for dinosaurs.

Scientists have discovered two giant new dinosaur species in northwest China — a region where dinosaur fossils had never previously been found — according to a study released Thursday in Scientific Reports.

In recent years, a number of fossils were unearthed from China’s Turpan-Hami Basin in Xinjiang and were comprised of flying pterosaurs, preserved eggs, embryos and fossil fragments of spinal vertebrae and rib cages.

Three of the fossils — dating to about 120 million to 130 million years old, from the early Cretaceous period — were initially a mystery to scientists. However, researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the National Museum of Brazil were able to determine that two of those belonged to previously unknown species: Silutitan sinensis and Hamititan xinjiangensis.

Both names mention the Greek word “titan” in reference to their giant size, and the dinosaurs are part of the sauropod family, the largest animals to ever walk the earth and known for being herbivorous and having long necks and tails.

The Silutitan species is estimated to be over 20 meters (65.6 feet) long. It takes its name from the Silk Road — or “silu” in Mandarin. The dinosaur’s neck vertebrae led researchers to believe that it belonged to a family of sauropods called Euhelopodidae, which have only been found in East Asia.

The Hamititan specimen was 17 meters (55.77 feet) long, with a name related to where the species was discovered — Xinjiang. The species had similar characteristics to the sauropods of South America, according to researchers, which begged the unanswered question: How did dinosaurs from South America end up in China?

The dinosaurs are thus almost as large as blue whales, which are about 23 to 30 meters (75 to 98 feet) long.

The third specimen, which was not a new species, may have been from a somphospondylan sauropod, which lived from the late Jurassic to the late Cretaceous period.

“Besides the pterosaur Hamipterus and one theropod tooth, these dinosaurs are the first vertebrates reported in this region, increasing the diversity of the fauna as well as the information on Chinese sauropods,” the researchers wrote in the study.

Earlier this year, scientists discovered the remains of a tiny winged creature with wide eyes and a goofy grin in China’s Hubei Province. The new species of pterosaur was found fossilized and crushed in a rock dating back 160 million years ago. The world’s first dinosaur fossil found sitting on a nest of eggs was also uncovered in China in Ganzhou back in March. The skeletal remains belonged to an oviraptorosaur — a bird-like beast that roamed the Earth more than 66 million years ago.