Paleozoological Museum of China (Baoding Natural History Museum)
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The world's only skeleton fossil specimen of Sinoraptor dongi is now stored in the China Paleozoological Museum (Baoding Natural History Museum) in Baoding, Hebei Province. It is the "treasure of the museum" and was discovered in 1987 in the Jiangjunmiao area of Qitai County, Changji Hui Autonomous Prefecture, Xinjiang, China (southeast edge of the Junggar Basin).
Sinoraptor dongi lived in the middle and late Jurassic period, about 166 million to 157 million years ago, and was a large carnivorous dinosaur. Its body shape is very similar to that of Allosaurus in North America, and it was one of the largest predators on land at that time.
Sinoraptor dongi is an Allosaurus dinosaur (one of the large carnivorous dinosaurs). The skeleton fossil specimen of Sinoraptor dongi provides fossil evidence for people to understand the origin and distribution of Allosaurus in Asia.
Since the surrounding rock where the fossil was located was very hard, scientists worked hard for two years before finally restoring it. The fossil specimen is very well preserved, only the forelimbs and part of the tail vertebrae are missing. The overall body length is about 7.6 meters and the height is close to 3 meters. Scientists have inferred that it had not yet reached physical maturity at the time of death and was still in the growth stage through the study of the degree of bone healing. It is estimated that its adult body length can reach 11.5 meters and its weight can be close to 3.9 tons.
From the fossil evidence, the Sinoraptor had many injuries on its body, and even a rib was broken and healed. It seems that as the "Western Overlord", the Sinoraptor was a tough guy who was not easy to mess with during his lifetime. According to a paper published by scientists in 2009, they speculated that the scapula fracture wound found on the Sinoraptor fossil was most likely caused by a counterattack when hunting Mamenchisaurus.
According to reports, this Sinoraptor specimen was discovered during the Sino-Canada (China-Canada) dinosaur expedition. It was jointly studied by Chinese scientist Zhao Xijin and Canadian scientist Philip Curie. The identification results showed that it belonged to a new family, new genus, and new species. In order to thank the Chinese leader of the expedition, Mr. Dong Zhiming, the species was named Dong's Sinoraptor (S. dongi).
It is reported that this large theropod dinosaur fossil can be preserved so completely and the bones maintain a high degree of correlation, which is rare in the world. It is the only Chinese raptor skeleton specimen in the world.