An artist's rendering of a pterosaur. Pterosaurs were aerial vertebrates that lived alongside dinosaurs approximately 120 million years ago. (Photo : China Daily)
Dinosaur enthusiasts and aspiring paleontologists now have another reason to visit the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. The local government of Hami Prefecture, in cooperation with the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, recently opened a pterosaurs exhibit at the Hami Museum.
The exhibit, which will run for two to three months, features pterosaur fossils and eggs that were excavated from a site about 100 kilometers south of Hami Prefecture.
Pterosaurs were aerial vertebrates that lived alongside dinosaurs approximately 120 million years ago.
According to scientists, the site in Hami Prefecture is the best place in the world to look for pterosaur fossils.
"Since bones of pterosaurs are fragile and difficult to preserve, there are generally few well-preserved fossils that could help us reproduce the scene of pterosaurs' lives," said Wang Xiaolin, a professor from the institute credited to have discovered the pterosaur fossils, in an interview with China Daily. The institute has been conducting research in the Hami site since 2005.
The discoveries in Hami Prefecture help establish the area as a fossil-rich region. Among the remains unearthed include three-dimensional male and female pterosaur skulls and eggs--the first ones reported in the world.
"We can have a better understanding of how the pterosaur body changes from young to old, technically called ontogenetic variation. In this case (of Hami), we could even observe morphological variation between sexes--males and females differ from the expression of their head crests, with males purportedly having larger crests and a more robust end of the snout," Brazilian paleontologist Alexander Kellner from Brazil's National Museum and Federal University of Rio de Janeiro wrote in an email addressed to China Daily.
In light with the recent developments, the local government also announced that a pterosaur museum, the first of its kind in China, will be established in Hami Prefecture.
