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Experts say dinosaur fossil found in E China may be new species

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-10-15 20:36

JINAN: Chinese paleontologists said Thursday the newly found fossilised skeleton in east China's Shandong Province may be the remains of a new species of dinosaur.

The 1.5-meter-long and 1.2-meter-wide skeleton, discovered in Zhucheng City, has been sent to the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing for further research.

The new fossil shows a relatively smaller shape and is very different from the dinosaur fossils discovered earlier, said Zhao Xijin, a dinosaur expert with the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

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"It is possibly a new species of dinosaur and a big discovery since the third large-scale exploration in January 2008," said Xu Xing, another expert from the academy.

They have already discovered a 21-meter-long "duck-billed dinosaur", the biggest-ever in the world, and found a giant horned dinosaur fossil for the first time.

Zhucheng boasts the world's largest dinosaur fossil coenosis. Before the third dig in 2008, another two major digs took place there in 1964 and 1988.