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<\/a><\/p>\nThe 208GPV01 fossil from the Bayan Gobi Formation in the Yin\u2019gen-Ejinaqi Basin, China. Image credit: Li et al., doi: 10.1016\/j.hisbio.2026.100044.<\/p>\n
The new dinosaur specimen was recovered unexpectedly during a copper mineral survey conducted by a team of Chinese geologists.<\/p>\n
Cataloged as 208GPV01, the fossil was pulled from a drill core at a depth of 473 m (1,500 feet) near Guaizihu in the Yin\u2019gen-Ejinaqi Basin.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Bayan Gobi Formation<\/a> is an Early Cretaceous continental deposit in northern China, primarily exposed within the Yin\u2019gen-Ejinaqi Basin of western Inner Mongolia,\u201d said Dr. Lida Xing, a researcher at the China University of Geosciences and the Dinosaur Odyssey Science Museum, and colleagues.<\/p>\n \u201cIts fauna shares similarities with that of the nearly contemporaneous Western Liaoning, suggesting that both may belong to the radiation range of the Jehol Biota, although some differences exist.\u201d<\/p>\n The 208GPV01 fossil dates back roughly 115 million years to the Early Cretaceous epoch.<\/p>\n It consists mainly of proximal tail vertebrae along with several associated elements.<\/p>\n \u201c208GPV01 comprises a sacral rib, four caudal vertebral centra, six caudal neural arches, several transverse processes, and ossified tendons,\u201d the researchers said.<\/p>\n Model of Psittacosaurus sp. based on skin and pigmentation patterns on the specimen from the Senckenberg Museum, Germany. Image credit: Jakob Vinther et al.<\/p>\n The specimen, according to the scientists, belongs to Ornithischia, a group of plant-eating, bird-hipped dinosaurs.<\/p>\n To pin down the fossil\u2019s closest relatives, they compared its proportions with those of numerous other ornithischian species using geometric morphometrics.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n