A bizarre dinosaur was unexpectedly fossilized 130 million years ago, leaving behind an astonishingly intact body that even contained a frog it had recently swallowed.
According to Sci-News, the newly discovered dinosaur lived in Inner Mongolia, China, during the early Cretaceous period, approximately 120-130 million years ago. Named Daurlong wangi, this creature is a medium-sized dromaeosaurid (bird-like dinosaur) that typically fed on fish, mammals, and small dinosaurs.
Recently excavated fossil – (Photo: SCIENTIFIC REPORTS)
The fossil was uncovered at the famous Jehol Biota site, a preserved freshwater and terrestrial ecosystem from the Cretaceous period found within a massive layered rock formation in western Liaoning Province and nearby areas in northeastern China.
Dr. Xuri Wang from the Geological Institute of the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, who led the research, stated: “The Jehol Biota has provided a rich diversity of dromaeosaurid species. Their abundance can be ecologically explained by the assumption that it was to avoid direct resource competition.”
The Daurlong wangi fossil that was excavated features nearly complete remains, revealed at the location of Pigeon Hill in the Longjiang Formation of Inner Mongolia, and even contains a complete fossilized frog skeleton within its intestines. Its estimated length when alive was about 1.5 meters.
The unfortunate frog is a true treasure. “Reconstructing the digestive tract of extinct species, including dinosaurs, can be indirectly inferred from what remains in the intestines” – the authors wrote in their publication in Scientific Reports.
This is also the first dromaeosaurid found with an unexpectedly intact intestinal tract.
Graphic depiction of a dromaeosaurid dinosaur – (Photo: UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY).
Reconstructing its appearance will also provide many fascinating insights. With other dromaeosaurid species previously discovered, reconstructions suggest it resembled a bird more than a dinosaur, but as a monstrous bird akin to hybrid versions seen in horror films, featuring sharp claws, strong legs, and reduced wings, with a rather fearsome “appearance.”
However, the dromaeosaurid remains a reptile, a dinosaur that is 100% genetically.
