Dinosaurs: Giant Chinese dino species 'as big as a blue whale'
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A giant skeleton of another sauropod - Mamenchisaurus - which is 39 meters in length and 15 meters in height, is on display at Chongzhou Tianyan Museum in China
Two new species of massive dinosaurs - almost as big as blue whales - have been discovered in China.
Scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences say the previously unknown species may have lived about 120 to 130 million years ago and belong to the sauropod family. Sauropods were grass-eating dinosaurs with big bodies, long necks, small heads and large tails.
The research, published in the scientific journal Scientific Reports, is based on studies of fossils found in China's northwest regions - in Xinjiang and the Turpan-Hami Basin - which increases the range of dinosaurs found in Asia.
Plant-eating sauropods - like this diplodocus - are famous for their giant size and long necks
The dinos are believed to be from the sauropod family and have been named Silutitan sinensis - "silu" meaning "Silk Road" in Mandarin - and Hamititan xinjiangensis, a nod to the region where it was found.
The Silutitan species, researchers estimated, could be more than 20 metres long and the Hamititan specimen may have been about 17 metres long, compared to modern-day blue whales which grow to lengths of 23-30 metres.
Visitors check out a Brachiosaurus skull at Berlin's Natural History museum
"These dinosaurs are the first vertebrates reported in this region, increasing the diversity of the fauna as well as the information on Chinese sauropods," the scientists said in the study.