Scientists assemble Jurassic monsters
A pair of dinosaurs and a prehistoric elephant took shape yesterday, as four mainland experts relied on memory to assemble the skeletons from more than 600 bones.
The scientists, from the Institute of Vertebrate Palaeontology and Palaeoanthropology in Beijing, worked from 8 am to midnight to assemble the beasts for Hong Kong Expo '97 at the Convention and Exhibition Centre from today.
The skeletons are the main attraction of the four-day event.
'Each bone has a name, but I have not memorised them all,' said assistant professor Lu Qingwu. 'I learned their positions when we disassembled them at the institute's display room.' The dinosaurs, Lufengosaurus and Kunmingosaurus, were unearthed in Yunnan in the 1970s and 1980s. They lived in the Jurassic period between 135 million and 205 million years ago.
The ancient elephant, known as Platybelodon, originated from the middle Miocene period about 23 million years ago.
The skeletons of each animal weigh around 580 kilograms. They stand about four metres tall.
About 85 per cent of the Lufengosaurus and half of the other two animals' skeletons are real fossilised bones.
Recent pioneering research at the institute has pushed back the date of the earliest mammals from the end of the Cretaceous period more than 65 million years ago to the Jurassic period.
The expo features more than 200 companies in industries as diverse as telecommunications, clothing, publishing and sport.
