Sept. 11, 2007 — Dinosaurs recently unearthed in China — including an "ungainly," 19-foot armored beast and a "fierce" carnivore found with the clawed foot and leg of a raptor in its gut — are painting a grisly picture of prehistory.
Since the two species, Zhejiangosaurus lishuiensis and Sinocalliopteryx gigas, represent different dinosaur groups, one of which was not even thought to be in China, the finds also add to a growing body of evidence that Asia was teeming with life over 100 million years ago.
Lu Junchang, who led the Zhejiangosaurus research, described the discovery as the "most important" of its kind in China.
Lu, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences in Beijing, explained that the fossil proves nodosaurids — spiked, bony-plated herbivorous dinosaurs with powerful jaws — once lived in China. Similar specimens have been found in Wyoming and Kansas.
Discovery News correspondent James Williams joins fossil hunters at the heart of a dig.
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"This particular dinosaur had bony dermal plates covering the top part of its body, two lines of sharp spikes that protruded from its back, and a clubless tail," coauthor Jin Xingsheng, deputy curator of the Zhejiang Provincial Museum of Natural Sciences, said.
The species also had "a mild temperament and (an) ungainly build," the researchers wrote.
