Baby dragon found, according to reports in Science (AAAS) News 9 May 2017and BBC News 10 May 2017, and Nature Communications doi:10.1038/ncomms14952 Published online: 09 May 2017.
A team of scientists in China have studied a dinosaur hatchling whose fossil was found along with dinosaur eggs called Macroelongatoolithus (large long egg-shaped stones), dated as 90 million years old. Similar fossil eggs are found in many places around the world, but until this fossil was found no-one knew what kind of creature had laid them.
The dinosaur has been named Beibeilong sinensis, “baby dragon from China” and it has been classified as a “new species of giant oviraptorosaur”. According to the research team there is an abundance of Macroelongatoolithus eggs found in Asia and North America but this contrasts with the “dearth” of giant oviraptorosaur skeletal remains. From the bones that have been found it is believed they grew to a height which likely stood about 3.5 metres (12ft) at the hip, and weighed well over a metric ton. The hatchling dinosaur was 38cm (15in) from nose to tail tip.
Steve Brusatte of the University of Edinburgh, commented: “It stretches the mind to imagine these wee little embryos growing into a one-ton feather-covered dinosaur that would have looked quite a bit like Big Bird. And they were weird – with feathers and beaks, but no teeth”.
Editorial Comment: Here is another reminder that the Chinese know a dragon when they see one. Like Richard Owen and William Fox, the original dinosaur researchers in England, the Chinese refer to dinosaur bones as dragon bones, no matter how big or small they were.
It does indeed stretch the imagination to think of this little creature growing into “a one-ton feather-covered dinosaur”, but not because of the size difference. We have known for many years that very big dinosaurs started life as small creatures that hatched out eggs no bigger than ostrich eggs. But when this baby creature shows no sign of having feathers, how about you evolutionists own up to fairy tales, fake news and mythical non-science? Since the scanty remains of adults do not have any feathers either, then admit it – the feathers, not the name dragon, are the real myth here.
Illustration from: Pu, H. et al. Perinate and eggs of a giant caenagnathid dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of central China. Nat. Commun. 8, 14952 doi: 10.1038/ncomms14952 (2017). Published under Creative Commons Licence CC BY 4.0.
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