A new dinosaur species has been identified from 90 million-year-old fossils found in the Henan province of China in the 1990s.
“Beibeilong sinensis” means “baby dragon from China,” and the oviratorosaur it refers to would have been over 26 feet tall and 3 tons in weight, according to International Business Times.
The newly identified species is the largest animal ever identified that sat on a nest and cared for young, IBT reported. B. sinensis could lay more than two dozen eggs that measured about 18 inches each and weighed about 11 pounds, and scientists think it had feathers, wings, and a beak.
Oviraptorsaurs previously known before the 1990s fossil discovery were all small creatures, NPR reported.
The discovery was published in the journal Nature Communications and was made jointly by Chinese, Canadian, and Slovakian researchers, IBT reported.
The fossils were taken from China to the United States shortly after their discovery, but were not studied thoroughly until they were returned to China in recent years.
A model of a fossil embryo was published on the cover of National Geographic in 1996 after the fossils were originally discovered and was nicknamed “Baby Louie.” It wasn’t clear how the fossils made it back to China after being sold to an American fossil company following their discovery in the 1990s.
Another species of giant oviraptorosaur was discovered in China in 2007, which led scientists to reconsider what kind of dinosaur might have laid the giant eggs found earlier, NPR reported.
Only three known skeletons of giant oviraptorosaurs have ever been found, so there is much more to learn about these kinds of dinosaurs.