It was only discovered in the early 1990s, but China's Yixian formation has already transformed our knowledge of dinosaurs. Jeff Hecht uncovers the fossil bonanza. MEI long, the "soundly sleeping dragon", is small enough to hold in your two hands. Its head is tucked under its forelimb, like a sleeping bird with its head under a wing. When I saw it in Xu Xing's office at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, the long tail that was wrapped around its body when it was discovered had been removed for analysis. Otherwise the tiny bones of this little dinosaur were arranged just as they were when it went to sleep for the last time, some 125 million years ago in what is now China. Such a complete, exquisitely preserved skeleton of a small dinosaur was something that palaeontologists could only have dreamed about a decade ago. In recent years, however, they have become rather accustomed to dream discoveries. Mei long is just the latest in a string of stunning finds to come out of a rock formation called Yixian in the Liaoning province of north-eastern China (see Map, page 45). The Yixian formation is stuffed full of dinosaurs, as well as birds, mammals, lizards, fish, turtles, insects and plants, all preserved in great detail. And over the past 10 years, this fossil bonanza has helped to transform our knowledge and understanding of dinosaurs, the world they inhabited, and the animals they shared it with.
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