Contracts signed

Councillor Dave Trimble - Portfolio Holder for Leisure and Culture and Ron Inglis - Service Manager for Museums and Galleries at Nottingham City Council, along with Dr Wang Qi from the University of Nottingham visited China at the end of September.

They represented the team bringing this unique dinosaur exhibition to Nottingham and officially signed the agreement with the third partner - the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP) in Beijing

The image shows Councillor Trimble (Centre left) and Zhou Zhonghe (Centre right)  - Director of IVPP signing the contract.

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Viewing the exhibits

The collection will be on loan from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP) and the Long Hao Geology and Paleontology Research Institute of Inner Mongolia

In addition to the feathered dinosaurs, there will also be specimens of some the largest prehistoric creatures ever found in China.

While in China, the team was able to see at first hand, some of the exhibits that will be coming to Nottingham next summer. And to discuss plans on ways to show them to the public.

Image: The team is studying Sinosauropteryx (a real fossil coming to Nottingham - see Meet the dinosaurs) under supervision of Wang Yuan – the Head of the Paleozoological Museum of China (PMC)

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Meet the dinosaurs!

Guanlong 

Genus: Guanlong
Pronounced: gwan-long
Species: wucaii
Pronounced: woo-kai-ee

Size: 3m long, 1m tall (similar size to a SMART car)
Diet: Carnivorous
Named by: Xu, Clark, Forster, Norell, Erickson, Eberth, Jia and Zhao, 2006

Place of discovery: Wukaiwan area, Jungaar Basin, northwestern China.

Age: Late Jurassic (Oxfordian stage, Shishugou Formation), 160 million years ago

Classification: Guanlong is the earliest known tyrannosauroid - the group of dinosaurs that includes Tyrannosaurus rex.

Meaning of names: Guanlong means Crown Dragon, in reference to its head crest. wucaii stems from the Chinese 'wucai' (five colours), which refers to the rich colours of rocks in which the fossil bones were found.

Description: Guanlong is a relatively small two-legged carnivorous dinosaur with long arms with three-fingered hands. It has an unusual and distinctive crest on the top of its skull. Sharp claws and teeth would have helped it catch and kill small prey.

Reference: Xu X., Clark, J.M., Forster, C. A., Norell, M.A., Erickson, G.M., Eberth, D.A., Jia, C., and Zhao, Q. (2006). A basal tyrannosauroid dinosaur from the Late Jurassic of China". Nature 439 (7077): 715–718.

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Sinosauropteryx

Genus: Sinosauropteryx
Pronounced: sine-oh-sore-op-ter-iks
Species: prima
Pronounced: pry-mah

Size: Approximately 1 m long, 70 cm tall (Roughly the size of a Golden Retriever)
Diet: Carnivore
Named by: Sinosauropteryx prima was named by Qiang Ji and Shu’an Ji in 1996.

Place of discovery: The first ever specimen of Sinosauropteryx was discovered in Shangyuanxiang village, Beipiao, western Liaoning Province, China. However, the fossil specimen in our exhibition was collected from Dawangzhangzi, Lingyuan, Liaoning Province.

Age: Early Cretaceous (Yixian Formation) ~125 million years ago.

Classification: Sinosauropteryx belongs to a family of tiny nimble two-legged dinosaurs called the Compsognathidae.

Meaning of names: The genus comes from ‘Sino’, meaning Chinese; ‘sauros’, meaning lizard or reptile; and ‘pteryx’, meaning wing. In Chinese, this translates literally as ‘China dragon bird’. The species name means ‘first’ in reference to its status as the first feathered non-bird dinosaur ever discovered.

Description: Sinosauropteryx is a slender meat-eating dinosaur with two long legs, short arms, and a long tail. Fossil evidence suggests that it was covered in downy feathers.

Reference: Ji, Q.; Ji, S. 1996. On the discovery of the earliest fossil bird in China (Sinosauropteryx gen. nov.) and the origin of birds. Chinese Geology. Beijing: Chinese Geological Museum. 10 (233): 30–33.

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Dino-social

Keep up with the conversations on Twitter and Facebook using the hashtag #Chinasaurs17 

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Website launches!

Our Dinosaurs of China website is now live and is packed with information on the exhibition. Read about the dinosaurs that will be featured, see more pictures of them, and keep up with the latest news.

You can also find out about the two sites that will be housing the exhibition and start to plan your visit.

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