Bajandsag

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Coordinates: 44 ° 8 ′ 18.7 ″  N , 103 ° 43 ′ 40 ″  O Bajandsag ( Mongolian Баянзаг , bayandsag , rich in Saxaul ), Shabarakh Usu or Flaming Cliffs is a rock formation in the Central Asian Gobi desert, in the vicinity of which there are numerous fossils found by vertebrates , including dinosaurs. Stratigraphically, therocks belongto the Djadokhta formation , whichconsistsessentially of sandstone , and thus date from the late Upper Cretaceous ( Campanium ), around 75 to 71 Mya . They are among the sights of the Mongolian province of Ömnö Gobi .

Panoramic shot of the rocks of Bajandsag at sunset

Naming

Map of Mongolia

The name Flaming Cliffs ("burning cliffs" or "flaming cliffs") was widely used in the English-speaking world - because of the bright orange-colored rock - from the American "dinosaur hunter" Roy Chapman Andrews , who discovered them during an expedition to the American Museum of Natural History explored in the 1920s. The Mongolian name refers to the abundant saxaul plant here.

Fossil site

Skull from AMNH 6515, type specimen of Velociraptor . Length about 17 cm.

The area around Bajandsag is particularly known for the nests of dinosaurs, which were first found in the rocks of the Djadokhta formation during an expedition led by Andrews; There have been reports of leftover eggs from southern France before (Matheron 1869). The eggs were assigned to Protoceratops , but this interpretation was later disputed because the finds of this Ceratopier are quite limited in contrast to the egg type. The origin of the eggs from Hadrosauroidea appears possible, but no embryos have yet been identified in the eggs for clarification . Similar nest finds have only been made in other regions since 1979.

Fossils of the turkey-sized predatory dinosaur ( theropod ) Velociraptor , popularized by the films in the Jurassic Park series, were also discovered at Bajandsag. The type specimen AMNH 6515, which Henry Fairfield Osborn used in 1924 to diagnose and first describe this genus, also comes from here .

Individual evidence

Detail of the rock formation
  1. Jump up ↑ Demberelyin Dashzeveg, Lowell Dingus, David B. Loope, Carl C Swisher, Togtokh Dulam, Mark R Sweeney: New Stratigraphic Subdivision, Depositional Environment, and Age Estimate for the Upper Cretaceous Djadokhta Formation, Southern Ulan Nur Basin, Mongolia . In: American Museum Novitates . No. 3498 , 2005, pp. 1-31 , doi : 10.1206 / 0003-0082 (2005) 498 [0001: NSSDEA] 2.0.CO; 2 (English).
  2. ^ Roy Chapman Andrews: On the trail of the primitive man , Leipzig: FA Brockhaus, 1927, p. 151.
  3. ↑ Haubold 1990.
  4. ^ Henry Fairfield Osborn : Three new Theropoda, Protoceratops zone, central Mongolia (= American Museum Novitates. No. 144, ISSN  0003-0082 = Publications of the Asiatic Expeditions of the American Museum of Natural History. Contribution. No. 32). The American Museum of Natural History, New York NY 1924, online

literature

  • Hartmut Haubold : The dinosaurs. System, evolution, paleobiology . 4th edition. A. Ziemsen Verlag, Wittenberg Lutherstadt 1990, ISBN 3-7403-0170-8 . ( The new Brehm library 432)

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