USEUROPEAFRICAASIA 中文双语Français
China
Home / China / Society

Yangchuanosaurus to appear on Chinese Dinosaur Stamps

By Tan Yingzi in Chongqing | chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2017-03-09 16:18

Yangchuanosaurus to appear on Chinese Dinosaur Stamps

File photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn


Known as the "mobile meat grinder", Yangchuanosaurus will be one of seven dinosaurs featured in the Chinese Dinosaur special stamp collection, according to Commemorative and Special Stamps Issue Plan 2017, China Post.

The collection will debut on May 19 and includes seven types of dinosaurs: Yangchuanosaurus, Tsintaosaurus Spinorhinus, Huayangosaurus, Gigantoraptor, Microraptor, Sinosauropteryx and Mamenchisaurus Hochuanensis.

Yangchuanosaurus got its name after it was discovered in Yongchuan district, Chongqing, in 1976. It is famous for its giant teeth, rapid speed and ferocious temperament.

This dinosaur lived in China during the Bathonian and Callovian stages of the Middle Jurassic, and was similar in size and appearance to its North American relative, the Allosaurus.

During a thunderstorm in June 1976, Lyu Xiangzhi, deputy commander of a local reservoir, was on his way to check a dam with his colleague when they stumbled upon a white object exposed from a rock. It was very hard and looked similar to an animal bone.

Later, an expert identified the fossil to be a carnivorous dinosaur head with well-preserved jaw teeth.

Wang Dayu, who is in his 50s and lives in Yongchuan, was deeply impressed by this huge dinosaur fossil head when he saw it. "The skull was around a meter long, with a washbasin-big hole around its eyes," he recalled.

The local government conducted a large excavation project around where the fossil head was found. About 20 days later, a complete fossilized dinosaur was found.

According to experts, this fossil was of a large carnivorous dinosaur, the same type as the head found 20 days earlier. They determined further that the Yangchuanosaurus lived during the Jurassic Period, and was 800 cm long, 400 cm tall and 120 cm wide.

This Yangchuanosaurus fossil is now preserved at the Chongqing Natural History Museum, as a major treasure of the museum.

Previous Page 1 2 3 4 5 Next Page

Editor's picks
Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site.
License for publishing multimedia online 0108263

Registration Number: 130349
FOLLOW US