Earlier this year, a team of scientists made a splash when they revealed a remarkable new find — a complete skeleton of a 16-foot-long aquatic reptile, dubbed a "Chinese dragon" due to its serpentine appearance and exceptionally long neck. The species, Dinocephalosaurus orientalis, swam the seas during the Triassic period, and the fossil itself dates back 240 million years.
The fossil has fascinated — and baffled — scientists and the public alike. But previous fossil discoveries, as well as other specimens of the same creature, can help researchers arrive at a greater understanding of the strange-looking reptilian predator, which is difficult to compare to any modern-day species.
“They would have been up towards the top of the food chain, if not at the top of it,” says Nicholas Fraser, a paleontologist with National Museums Scotland and one of the scientists behind the recent find.
How Was the 'Chinese Dragon' Discovered?
Dinocephalosaurus orientalis was first described in 2003 by Fraser’s colleague Chun Li, a paleontologist with the Chinese Academy of Sciences. That's when Li saw a vertebrate fossil sitting in some rubble by the side of the road in Guizhou province in southern China. Li asked villagers in the region, who led him to a spot where he discovered further fossil remains.
