115-Million-Year-Old Dinosaur Fossil Recovered from Deep Drill Core in China
Geologists in China have discovered a 115-million-year-old dinosaur fossil during a copper mineral survey in Inner Mongolia. The specimen, identified as an ornithischian, provides new data on the geographic range of the Jehol Biota during the Early Cretaceous period.
Why it matters
This discovery expands scientific understanding of prehistoric biodiversity and the geological history of the Bayan Gobi Formation.
Scientists have identified the first dinosaur fossil from a remote western section of the Bayan Gobi Formation in China’s Inner Mongolia, extending the known geographic range of dinosaur fossils in this important Early Cretaceous rock unit.
The 208GPV01 fossil from the Bayan Gobi Formation in the Yin’gen-Ejinaqi Basin, China. Image credit: Li et al ., doi: 10.1016/j.hisbio.2026.100044.
The new dinosaur specimen was recovered unexpectedly during a copper mineral survey conducted by a team of Chinese geologists.
Cataloged as 208GPV01, the fossil was pulled from a drill core at a depth of 473 m (1,500 feet) near Guaizihu in the Yin’gen-Ejinaqi Basin.
“The Bayan Gobi Formation is an Early Cretaceous continental deposit in northern China, primarily exposed within the Yin’gen-Ejinaqi Basin of western Inner Mongolia,” said Dr. Lida Xing, a researcher at the China University of Geosciences and the Dinosaur Odyssey Science Museum, and colleagues.
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