New dinosaur fossils discovered in Inner Mongolia

Workers are fencing off an isolated strip in northern China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, in a bid to protect a new site of fossilized dinosaur bones.

Liang Chunxi, from the Land Resources Bureau in Wulate Rear Banner in Bayan Nur City, said local authorities have invited experts to the area to evaluate the remains, which were found by local herdsmen.

An extensive region of the site is called Bayan Manduhu, where paleontologists had earlier found fossils of the club-tailed ankylosaurus and protoceratops, a dinosaur with frill on its head.

An area of 3,200 hectares of the region has been recognized as a regional nature reserve since 2003, after hundreds of dinosaur remains were discovered.

The rock formation that dates back 75 million to 120 million years has already been known as one of the world's richest veins for dinosaur fossils. It is also the only site in China that conserves fossils of late Cretaceous pinacosaurus and oviraptorosaur.

The reserve seating 1,500 meters above the sea level is sparsely populated.

Liang said local authorities are applying for state-level geological relics protection for the reserve in order to combat illegal exploration and trading of animal fossils on the high land.