More than 7,600 fossilized dinosaur bones have been unearthed since March 2008 at what Chinese palaeontologists now claim is the largest dinosaur graveyard in the world.
Most of the bones date back to the Late Cretaceous period more than 100 million years ago, raising speculation that the finds could offer clues about why the creatures died out. The discoveries, made by researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, include bones from what might be the largest duck-billed dinosaur discovered to date. The site consists of 15 separate areas in Zhucheng, Shandong province, which has yielded more than 50 tonnes of dinosaur bones since the 1960s.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Dinosaur graveyard promises clues to extinction. Nature 457, 140 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/457140f
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/457140f
