New Dinosaur Discovered in China

Recently in Mongolia, China, a new 6 foot long agile dinosaur was found as a claw sticking out of a cliff face— which was actually the tip of the predator. During a 2008 field expedition, doctoral student Jonah Choiniere of George Washington University and graduate student Michael Pittman of University College London discovered the remains. “It was a total surprise that the whole skeleton was buried deeper in the rock,” they said.

The dinosaur is now called Linheraptor exquisitus, a creature that lived about 75 million years ago, and a relative of Velociraptor, a feathered, bipedal meat-eater. Linheraptor exquisitus is about 6 feet long or 1.8 meters, and 50 pounds or 23 kilograms. It is described as an agile predator by researcher, and belongs to the family of Dromaeosauridae whose members are known for sporting a large, curved claw on the foot that might have helped in capturing prey like horned dinosaur.

The skeletal remains and fossils were found in the rocks of the Wulansuhai Formation, part of a group of red sandstone rocks in Inner Mongolia, China. It is the fifth dromaeosaurid discovered in the rocks, which are famous for their preservation of uncrushed, complete skeletons.

Pittman stated, “Jonah saw a claw protruding from the cliff face. He carefully removed it and handed it to me,” and added, “I’ve always wanted to discover a dinosaur since I was a kid, and I’ve never given up on the idea. It was amazing that my first discovery was from a Velociraptor relative.”

The find marks the first near complete skeleton of its kind to be found in the Gobi desert since 1972, and will help piece together the appearance of other closely related dinosaur species.

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Students Discover Clawed Dinosaur in China