Dinosaur diplomacy: What you need to know about China’s ‘renewed emphasis’ on fossil research

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SINGAPORE: Hundreds of millions of years ago, long before sprawling Chinese megacities and towering skyscrapers were built, dinosaurs of all shapes and sizes roamed China – dominating the land, seas and skies before going extinct.

From Sichuan to the province of Gansu that crosses into the Gobi Desert, China is a Jurassic treasure trove for palaeontologists and the sheer number of fossils and new species being discovered showcases the rise and advancements in Chinese dinosaur research, experts say. 

“At present, China produces the largest number of newly discovered extinct species of dinosaurs in the world,” American palaeontologist Thomas Stidham wrote in a commentary that was published by the state-backed Global Times newspaper in March, noting the Chinese palaeontology field has seen “astonishing growth” over the last few decades. 

He credits this success with the discovery of “Peking Man” human fossils in 1927, excavated from a cave site located about 50 kilometres from Beijing. Skulls were also discovered at the site in the following years, along with teeth, bones and other stone artefacts as well as traces of mammal fossils. 

The Peking Man discovery addressed “fundamental questions” about human evolution and demonstrated the “great impact” of Chinese research and findings in the global study of fossils, Stidham said. 

Chinese research and discoveries were also having an “increasing global impact”, he added, citing notable recent discoveries of feathered dinosaurs as well as new technological approaches like advanced CT-scanning of fossils and the recovery of ancient DNA and other molecules preserved inside fossilised bones. 

Echoing this was David Goodman, a Chinese politics professor at the University of Sydney.

Speaking to CNA, he said there had been a notable increase in China’s focus on dinosaur research. The “renewed emphasis” could be for a number of reasons, he said, such as advanced technology and soft power. 

“There’s a relationship to understanding the depth of Chinese history for a number of reasons, one of which is soft power … in the sense that the Chinese government and leadership presents itself as a country which is concerned about its history and its past,” Goodman said. 

The sheer number and diversity of fossils being unearthed in China has been “unmatched” on a global scale, Chinese dinosaur experts said. 

The Dashanpu Middle Jurassic Dinosaur Fossils Site, located in Sichuan province, is one of the richest and most renowned sites in the world – having unearthed more than 200 fossils of dinosaurs and other vertebrae to date. 

Among them were fish, amphibians, sauropods and plesiosaurs, as well as the most complete skeleton of a stegosaurus dinosaur which is characterised by distinctive tail spikes and kite-shaped plates on its back. 

“These invaluable fossils provide crucial material for research on dinosaur classification, physiological traits, and evolutionary history,” Huang Xinyue, deputy director of the Zigong dinosaur museum, told the Global Times. 

CHINESE DINOSAUR BOOM 

To date, more than 300 species of dinosaurs have been discovered and identified in China, the most of any country in the world. 

According to statistics from the Institute of Vertebrate Palaeontology and Palaeoanthropology (IVPP) in Beijing, as of December 2023, China has named 343 kinds of dinosaurs. 

Similarly, according to the US National Parks Service, the US and China remain the top two countries to have named the most dinosaur species, with more than 320 each. 

China’s first-discovered dinosaur was the Sinosauropteryx, a small carnivorous flying dinosaur and the first-known feathered dinosaur, in the northeastern province of Liaoning by a fossil hunter named Li Yumin. 

This year saw multiple dinosaur discoveries reported across the country, including 400 dinosaur footprints dating back 120 million years, that were found in Yunnan province’s Lufeng city, a hotbed for dinosaur hunting which also drives local tourism. 

In January, researchers and archaeologists scoping the Yanshan Mountains in northern China unearthed a rare find – exquisitely preserved rare fossils dating back to 1.63 billion years ago, setting a world record for the oldest fossils of its kind. 

The following month in February, Chinese paleontologists dug up fossils of a new dinosaur from a construction site in the city of Ganzhou in eastern Jiangxi province.

The bones were later identified to be that of a giant sauropod named the Gandititan Cavocaudatus, whose neck and tail were each believed to be longer than 5 metres.

Earlier this month, Chinese palaeontologists discovered two nearly complete dinosaur fossils in North China’s Inner Mongolia.

The groundbreaking find, named the Yuanyanglong Bainian (which translates to lovebird dragon) represents a new group of oviraptorosaurian dinosaurs, researchers said – bird-like dinosaurs known for their distinct short parrot-like skulls. 

Fossils said to be of a “large aged dinosaur” were also discovered on a remote and uninhabited island in Hong Kong in October, with further studies being conducted to determine more details about the species. 

Recent findings by Chinese scientists have also been making waves, including how horned herbivorous dinosaurs experienced a decline in their intelligence, hearing and sense of smell as they grew older and larger over the course of 100 million years. 

The joint study by Chinese palaeontologists and American counterparts shed light on the cognitive abilities of dinosaurs and also revealed that human evolution could follow a similar trajectory by relying too much on technology. 

CHALLENGES BUT ALSO OPPORTUNITIES

Like historic Terracotta warriors and pandas that serve as soft power ambassadors promoting Chinese history and culture abroad, experts say there is enormous potential in Chinese dinosaur discoveries which are being increasingly recognised for their growing contribution to palaeontology. 

But the field faces various challenges and unsolved issues, experts said. 

Writing in a paper in 2022, Chinese palaeontologist Zhou Zhonghe from the IVPP said that the illegal collection of rare fossils by poachers remains a major unsolved issue and also questioned the future of the field in China, saying that students would choose to pursue palaeontology because they saw it as “an advantageous career” rather than out of personal interests.

Chinese universities, including the prestigious Peking University, have also cited declining enrollment rates for palaeontology courses and said few were interested in pursuing the science. 

Speaking to the South China Morning Post, leading Chinese palaeontologist Xu Xing, also director of the IVPP, said many had previously been held back by limited English proficiency and other language barriers, which meant having to rely on foreign collaborators to present their own research internationally.

Many have “spent much of the past century catching up with their international peers” and were now planning to break new ground in China-led global research, with expeditions in Central Asia, Xu said. 

“I have witnessed China’s dinosaur research rise from its low ebb to the vibrant state it is in now – and we are ready to go global,” Xu said, adding that he remains optimistic about the future of Chinese dinosaur discoveries. 

“We first focused on researching our own dinosaur fossils as this research has made us gain experience and technology,” he said. “Although research funding in our field can’t match the level of other disciplines, it’s sufficient.”

Goodman from the University of Sydney expressed optimism about the future of the field in China and said there would be many palaeontologists “coming through”. “People are always keen because (studying dinosaurs) is interesting and in a big country like China, there’s always room,” he said. 

But while Chinese dinosaur fossils may “likely become” a source of pride in the near future, it will be quite some time before they have the same impact as other archaeological discoveries such as Xi’an’s famed Terracotta Warriors on the global stage, Goodman added. 

“The Terracotta Warriors are greater and have a bigger impact on everything, both inside China and outside,” he said, adding that fossil finding was “still a burgeoning activity in China at the moment”. 

“Will it get bigger? Possibly,” he said. “There’s so much (buried) underground in China, which is really quite amazing.”