Grassland Treasures: A Record of Major Archaeological Discoveries in Inner Mongolia

Author: Liu Zhaohuo / Country: Mainland China
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-11-01
Features: In early winter of 1983, a middle-aged man with a ruddy complexion arrived at the Cultural Relics Protection and Management Department of the Inner Mongolia Museum, panting and speaking excitedly in a thick and somewhat rough Mandarin mixed with Mongolian: "I saw the backbone (nirugunyesu) of a giant dragon lying on the hillside, stretching for hundreds of meters!" After careful questioning, it was learned that he was a herdsman from Sain Nuur Right Banner in Xilingol League, who discovered a large area of fossils while grazing near the Qagan Nuur Salt Mine. The fossils were reddish-brown and enormous—far larger than anything he had ever seen before. The local elders told him, "These are dragon bones. Such huge bones must belong to the bones of the true dragon king, but I can't say which one it is." To identify which emperor's dragon bones they were and to ensure they were collected by the country, he came all the way here. After hearing his description, a professional told him, "The bones you mentioned are those of ancient animals, not the bones of dragons from ancient mythology. The dragons revered by ancient people were actually a composite of various animals, and such creatures did not exist in the natural history of the world. The so-called backbone should be the bones of a dinosaur." Due to the winter season, no excavation work could be carried out, and only professional staff were sent to the site for surveying and covering the exposed fossil bones.
In 1985, with approval from the higher authorities, the Inner Mongolia Museum dispatched professional survey and excavation teams to the dinosaur fossil site—Qagan Nuur Salt Mine—to begin the rigorous and organized work of surveying, measuring, and excavating. The dinosaur fossil site is located in the southern part of the mine area. Due to multiple natural movements, the fossils were scattered and could be found over several kilometers. The main excavation area covered approximately 400 square meters. The dinosaur fossils were buried in the sandy mudstone layers of the Early Cretaceous period, about 120 million years ago. Due to the filling of minerals, they appeared reddish-brown and were extremely hard. Although the bones were fragmented and incomplete, their fine structures remained clearly distinguishable. The main bones included the occipital bone, alveolar bone, teeth, cervical vertebrae, dorsal vertebrae, caudal vertebrae, as well as relatively complete scapulae, humeri, ilia, ischia, pubic bones, femora, and a large number of ribs. The discovery of such a large, concentrated, and relatively complete set of bones was unprecedented in the history of dinosaur fossil excavations in Inner Mongolia.
After careful research and identification by paleontologists, it was determined that this was a previously unknown giant dinosaur fossil, belonging to the sauropod family and the new genus and species Qaganornis, named after the Qagan Nuur site. It lived during the Early Cretaceous period of the Mesozoic era.
By 1987, the Qaganornis was successfully restored and mounted. It measured 26 meters in length, 6 meters in height at the back, and 3.30 meters in chest width. With its head raised, it could reach a height of 12 meters, equivalent to the height of four stories. Its estimated weight in life was around 60 tons. In terms of its large bones, the scapulae were 2.40 meters tall and 1.10 meters wide, the humeri were 1.50 meters tall with a maximum diameter of 0.57 meters, the femora were 1.80 meters tall with a maximum diameter of 0.60 meters, and the (ilia, ischia, pubic bones) were 2.15 meters tall and 2.21 meters long.
This rare dinosaur fossil skeleton, along with the simultaneously unearthed fossil bones of Stegosaurus, not only fills the gap in records for this genus and species in northern China and Inner Mongolia but has also become a treasured artifact of the museum. It serves as an invaluable basis for studying the systematic evolution of the dinosaur family, their distribution and adaptation characteristics, individual development, comparative anatomy, determination of geological age, uncovering the mysteries of Earth's changes, and simulating ancient geography, climate, and ecological environments. (The author is a Deputy Research Curator at the Inner Mongolia Museum)
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