A huge buried fossil of a sauropod, or a large, long-necked herbivorous dinosaur, has been unearthed in southwest China's Sichuan Province.

After one month of excavation, the fossil was finally uncovered in the park of the Zigong Dinosaur Museum in Zigong City.

"It must have been a 'big guy' when it lived in the middle Jurassic period, about 160 million years ago," Li Fei, an archaeologist, said at the excavation site. "It is over 20 meters long and its longest rib measures 1.93 meters."

So far, no long cervical vertebra fossils have been found. Instead, under the sauropod, excavators found shinbone and thighbone fossils.

In addition, there is a 109-millimeter-long tooth fossil in the sauropod's rib. Six broken teeth fossils were found nearby, which probably belong to a carnivorous dinosaur, according to Li Fei.

"Based on this discovery, we conclude that this sauropod might have been killed by a predaceous dinosaur," said Li.

Besides the huge dinosaur fossil, some fossilized fish scales and tortoise shells were also discovered at the site.

The sauropod fossil is the largest among the dinosaur fossil cluster found in Zigong in 1979, on top of the 18-meter-long Omeisaurus tianfuensis, which was excavated in the same park and conferred "Asia's No. 2."

The Zigong Dinosaur Museum, known as a "treasury of fossils," is one of the world's three dinosaur relics museums. It houses the complete fossils of more than 100 dinosaurs.

In 1902, China dug out its first dinosaur fossil in northeastern Heilongjiang Province. In 1979, a cluster of dinosaur fossils was found in southwestern Zigong City.

At present, the amount of dinosaur fossils unearthed in China is the third largest in the world. They have been classified into over 100 categories.

Source: Xinhua