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Giant duck-billed dinosaur fossil in China sets world record

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Press Trust of India Beijing
A fossilised skeleton of a hadrosaur, or duck-billed dinosaur, in east China's Shandong province has been recognised by Guinness World Records as the largest hadrosaurid skeleton on display.

The Zhuchengosaurus maximus skeleton in Zhucheng Dinosaur Museum, Zhucheng City, is 9.1 meters high and 16.6 meters long, while the average height and body length of hadrosaurs are four-five meters and six-nine meters.

Experts with the city's dinosaur research center said Zhuchengosaurus maximus lived in lakes and swamps and fed on plants, clams and algae in the late Cretaceous period about 70 million years ago, when the area was a basin with a humid climate and heavy vegetation, sate-run Xinhua news agency reported.
 

Zhucheng is home to one of the largest dinosaur bone concentrations in the world.

At least 10 dinosaur species have been found in excavations there since the 1960's.

The skeleton fossil of Zhuchengosaurus maximus was unearthed during a round of excavations from 1989 and 1991.

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First Published: Apr 29 2016 | 3:22 PM IST

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