Day #17 on our Christmas Countdown is…

QIUPALONG!

Qiupalong: the “Dragon of the Qiupa Formation”

Qiupalong (pronounced Q-pa-long) was a feathered dinosaur from Late Cretaceous China. Most Asian critters related to the “ostrich mimic” dinosaur Ornithomimus are found in the Gobi Desert further North, so it’s quite special to find fossils of this one in a more Southwestern part of China (and some possible fossils in Canada).

The Qiupa Formation has layers of mudstone, brownish-red siltstone, and thin layers of fine conglomerates, which are basically bits of gravel and rock stuck together like concrete. Describing the rock as “fine” conglomerate means that the bits of gravel and other rock were small.

These types of rock are typically formed by deltas.

What is a delta, you ask?

It is where a large river empties into an area of slower-moving or stagnant water, like the ocean. Since rivers are always carrying silt like rotted bits of plant matter, animal poo, soil, and all matter of tiny broken pieces of rock, sand, and gravel, this gets dumped into the slow-moving water. Since this new body of water is slow or has no flow, the silt drifts to the bottom, and adds to the edge of the land the river is flowing down (because water always goes downhill).

Over time this “dumping ground” of silt grows into a quagmire of mudflats crisscrossed by small, slow, meandering rivers. Seen from space, it looks like the braided chord of the large river is unraveling as it gets closer to sea. We can see this where the Nile River meets the sea, for example.

Deltas are important habitat for all sorts of animals, and form bogs and wetland habitat for even more creatures.

The Qiupa Formation appears to be an important nesting site for many dinosaurs. Here are a few of the critters found there…

• Qiupalong: Known to be a relative of Ornithomimus from the hip and leg bones found, but there is still a lot of mystery surrounding it. Slightly more complete remains are known from Canada.
• Yulong: a relative of Oviraptor. There are many eggs from this type of dinosaur in the area, but not certain if they are Yulong eggs.
• Luanchuanraptor: A small-ish “raptor” that was a bit bigger than Velociraptor. The specimen found was not an adult yet, and was about five and a half feet long.
• Qiupanykus: a small relative of Alvarezsaurus.
• “Tyrannosaurus”: A mysterious relative of T. rex known only from a handful of teeth.
• “Ankylosaurid”: an equally mysterious relative of the famous armored dinosaur, but not enough bones to give it a proper name.
• Plus lots of lizards, turtles, small mammals, and even possible birds to fill out the boggy atmosphere of the place.

Where the larger dinosaurs “just visiting”, or could they have more constant roles in this environment? How do you think a Tyrannosaur or armored dinosaur could fit in the food web? Perhaps Qiupalong and Yulong were like oversized marsh birds wading across the mudflats, or did animals like Yulong only come to lay eggs?

There are so many possibilities! I’d love to hear what you think in the comments.

See you tomorrow for day 17 of the Critter Christmas Countdown!