Mongolia's fighting dinosaurs

By Sh.Batmonkh

“New Discoveries from Mongolia” features more than 30 of the best preserved and scientifically important dinosaur and other ancient animal fossils ever discovered in Mongolia’s famed Gobi Desert. On view at the National Museum of Natural History, the exhibition focuses on the “Fighting Dinosaurs” of Mongolia — one of the most famous fossil finds in the world.

The fossil, a fierce Velociraptor that was apparently buried alive while attacking a plant-eating, shield-headed Protoceratops, has been named a national treasure of Mongolia. Scientists think that a sudden sand flow may have quickly buried these foes, capturing them in this fighting position.

Mongolia has attracted paleontologists for over 84 years following a spur of discoveries in the 1920s that included eggs, skeletons and fossils of dinosaurs, extinct mammals, crocodiles, turtles and different extinct lizards.

These finds are one of Mongolia’s greatest treasures. The specimens have enhanced our understanding of life in the Gobi region 80 million years ago, and they shed new light on the rise of modern bird and mammal groups. The Fighting Dinosaurs fossil itself dates back 135 million to 63 million years (Late Cretaceous), at the end of the age of reptiles and the beginning of modern insects and flowering plants.

The fossil was found on August 12, 1971, by Andrzej Sulimski of the National University of Mongolia on joint Mongol-Polish expedition in the Togrogiin Shiree area of Bulgan soum, Omnogobi aimag. Both dinosaurs are approximately 1.5 meters in size. The Velociraptor is grabbing the head of the Protoceratops with its forearms and the sickle claws of its hindlegs seem to have torn out the throat and belly of the Protoceratops. This posture is sometimes compared to that of a lynx (bobcat) attacking its prey.

The Protoceratops defended itself by biting the Velociraptor’s right forearm so deeply that the predator could not move. While the cause of the fight in unclear from the surrounding area, paleontologists believe the Protoceratops died before the two animals were immobilized. It’s thought that this and other fossilized snapshots were entombed by a violent and sudden storm or by collapsing sand dunes.

The Protoceratops andrewsi, named after scientist and adventurer Roy Chapman Andrews, has massive jaws, a sharp beak, and teeth suited for slicing and shearing tough plants. Velociraptor Mongoliensis, means “swift robber” and belongs to the Deinonychosauria, Dromaeosauridae family.
Protoceratops is one of the most well-investigated dinosaurs. Its frill was larger than that of the more primitive Psittacosaurus, but less-developed than that of the more advanced Triceratops, and it had no horns but a bump on its snout. Although its forelimbs are shorter than the hindlimbs, this animal is considered to be a quadruped (walked on all fours).

Protoceratops is thought to have laid eggs for reproduction and took care of their babies in the nest. The world’s first widely-publicized dinosaur eggs, which were discovered by Chapman’s expedition to Mongolia in 1923 at the Flaming Cliffs, were first presumed to belong to Protoceratops, since it was the most commonly-found dinosaur at the locality. However, after 70 years, on the basis of studies of embryos discovered in Mongolia, it was shown that those eggs belonged to toothless theropod, Oviraptor.



Subsequent expeditions have returned to the Gobi and added to the picture of life in the late Cretaceous period, the last phase of dinosaur dominance before the mammals inherited the earth. Through these explorations, some incredibly well-preserved fossils of Protoceratops have been found in Mongolia. Such well-reserved fossils would have required rapid burial of the dinosaurs’ bodies. Possibly these animals nested below cliffs or large dunes and were buried by rock or sand slides. Recent finding of 15 infant Protoceratops in one place might eventually prove that case.



Also featured in the exhibition are many new specimens from Mongolia, including a number of species yet to be named, some of the most complete meat-eating theropod dinosaurs ever found, several nesting dinosaurs, and some of the finest lizard and mammal fossils discovered in Mongolia. This exhibition showcases discoveries and research by museum and Mongolian Academy of Sciences paleontologists over the last 10 years, and reflects the most current thinking on dinosaur traits, behavior, and evolutionary links to birds.