Dinosaur Valley

Dinosaur Valley

Dinosaur Valley

Dinosaur Valley is situated in the low-lying area of the General’s Gobi Depression. It runs from north to south, about 5 kilometers long. The hills flanking the valley appear intermittently, and the sandy surface of the valley is dotted with isolated mounds that look like randomly scattered giant steamed buns.

In the 19th year of the Republic of China (1930), the distinguished Chinese geologist Mr. Yuan Fuli, as part of the Sino-Swedish (Sweden) Scientific Expedition, arrived in Xinjiang. After three years of arduous work in the General’s Gobi area, he finally unearthed two dinosaur fossils with intact forms and undamaged skeletal frameworks. Later, paleontologists identified them and named them “Tianshanosaurus chitaiensis.” Dr. Yuan Fuli’s small geological hammer opened the mysterious world of the Junggar Basin, and subsequent geologists continued to explore and survey the layers of ancient rocks, reading this vast, enigmatic desert like an endlessly mysterious book.

In 1957, the Xinjiang Expedition Team of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, discovered dinosaur fossils in the Shishugou area during their exploration of the General’s Gobi, thereby confirming that the “Tianshanosaurus chitaiensis” originated from the Upper Jurassic Shicheng Formation.

In 1987, a Sino-Canadian scientific expedition team excavated a massive dinosaur fossil measuring 30 meters in length in the General’s Gobi area, breaking the previous record of a 22-meter-long, 3.5-meter-tall dinosaur fossil discovered in Sichuan Province. It became the largest dinosaur fossil in Asia, second only to the 34-meter-long dinosaur fossil preserved in the United States, ranking second in the world.

On August 26, 2006, researchers from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, unearthed a sauropod herbivorous dinosaur fossil in Dinosaur Valley, located in Qitai County, Changji Hui Autonomous Prefecture, Xinjiang. According to measurements by experts on-site, the dinosaur was about 35 meters in length. It belonged to the same species—Mamenchisaurus—as the dinosaur excavated over 100 meters away on the mountain in 1987, but was 5 meters longer than the 1987 find, thus earning the title of the “No. 1 Dragon in Asia.” Additionally, the dinosaur’s neck measured approximately 15 meters, making it the longest-necked dinosaur discovered in the world to date.

Later, experts identified the dinosaur fossils excavated in Dinosaur Valley as belonging to the sauropod herbivore Bellusaurus sui, and it was named “Monolophosaurus of the General’s Gobi.” In October 1994, when the China Paleozoological Museum was established in Beijing, a sculpture of the “Monolophosaurus of the General’s Gobi” was placed at the museum’s entrance.

This type of dinosaur lived during the Jurassic period, approximately 160 million years ago. At that time, the General’s Gobi was lush with water and grass, tall ginkgo trees stood everywhere, creating a paradise for dinosaurs, where they lived freely. However, due to significant later geological changes, dinosaurs gradually became extinct from the Earth.