Meet Xingxiulong yueorum: The Newly Discovered Giant Dinosaur! 🦕

Hey dinosaur enthusiasts! Guess what? Scientists have discovered a brand new dinosaur species in southwest China! How exciting is that? 🎉

This new dinosaur is called Xingxiulong yueorum (pronounced “shing-she-o-long yu-eh-oh-rum”) and it lived a very long time ago during the Early Jurassic period, about 190 million years ago! 🌍

The fossil of this amazing creature was found back in 2015 in a place called Lufeng City in Yunnan Province. It’s a well-preserved skeleton that includes parts of its backbone, tail, shoulder, and almost complete legs! 🦴

Xingxiulong yueorum was a type of sauropod dinosaur. Sauropods are famous for being huge with long necks and tails, like the Brachiosaurus. But this dinosaur was special because it was bigger than other similar dinosaurs found before. Scientists think it was about 8 to 10 meters long—that’s like five cars lined up! 🚗🚗🚗🚗🚗

What makes Xingxiulong yueorum even more interesting are its unique features. For example, it had a flat top edge on a bone in its ankle called the astragalus, and it had two bony toes on its fifth toe! 🦶

The discovery of this dinosaur helps scientists understand more about how dinosaurs evolved and how diverse they were in southwest China. Isn’t it cool that we’re still finding new dinosaurs today? Maybe one day, you could discover a new dinosaur too! 🧐

The research about Xingxiulong yueorum was published in an international journal called Historical Biology. Lead researcher You Hailu from the Chinese Academy of Sciences said that this finding provides new clues about the evolution of sauropod dinosaurs. 📝

Dinosaurs might be extinct, but they continue to surprise us with new discoveries. Keep exploring, and who knows what you might find! 🌟

Reference(s):

Scientists identify new sauropod dinosaur species in SW China

cgtn.com