The Chinese archeologists have reported the finding of the
remains of gigantic bird-like dinosaur
in the Gobi Desert
in north China's
Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.
According to their
analysis, the gigantic bird-like dinosaur has lived about 70 million
years ago and it could be the missing link in the evolutionary path between
dinosaurs and birds.
The Gigantoraptor erlianensis, as the Chinese scientists
called it, was eight meters long, five meters tall and weighed about 1.4 tones.
A phylogenetic analysis of the skeleton placed it within the
family that includes the beaked, bird-like Oviraptor.
"The analyses strongly supported the oviraptorosaur
affinity ofgigantoraptor erlianensis and suggested this new dinosaur was in an
intermediate position in oviraptorosaurian evolution," Xu Xing,a
researcher with the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleon
anthropology with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, quoted by Chinese press
agency Xinhua.
Since the fossil showed signs of arrested growth, it was
most likely still a young adult when it died, so the full-sized dinosaur might
have been even larger.
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