Chongqing - China, a major hub for dinosaur fossils, has a rich deposit of Jurassic-era fossils in the Sichuan and Chongqing regions. Recently, researchers uncovered a new dinosaur species at Yunyang Pu'an Dinosaur Fossil Wall, the world's largest Jurassic fossil wall, naming it "Yuzhoulong qurenensis." This marks the earliest sauropod discovery in Chongqing and the fifth newly named species in Yunyang.
Yunyang's Pu'an Dinosaur Fossil Wall is a significant paleontological site, stretching 150 meters long and 6 to 10 meters high, with a surface area of 1,320 square meters. It contains 17 fossil-rich zones, with over 5,000 fossils already exposed. The wall’s buried fossil depth exceeds 20 meters, indicating a vast, untapped repository of prehistoric life.
The region is famed for its diverse and widespread dinosaur fossils, including sauropods, theropods, ornithopods, and stegosaurs. The diversity and distribution of Yunyang's dinosaur fossils support the notion of a new dinosaur fauna.
Yunyang's fossil-rich environment is attributed to ancient lake conditions 180-160 million years ago, where sudden disasters led to mass dinosaur deaths and subsequent fossilization, preserving an invaluable window into the prehistoric past.