--- title: New Dragon-Like Dinosaur Discovered in China description: The Qijianglong has a neck that's half the length of its body canonical: https://time.com/3689274/dragon-dinosaur/ author: Sarah Begley article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-01-30T14:33:30.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:05:57.384Z article:section: Science og:title: New Dragon-Like Dinosaur Discovered in China og:description: The Qijianglong has a neck that's half the length of its body og:url: https://time.com/3689274/dragon-dinosaur/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcb53c49068b1e4d1/69877cc50b72e310086dd6d6/dragon.jpeg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Three clawed Japanese dragon decorates c og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: New Dragon-Like Dinosaur Discovered in China twitter:description: The Qijianglong has a neck that's half the length of its body twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcb53c49068b1e4d1/69877cc50b72e310086dd6d6/dragon.jpeg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # New Dragon-Like Dinosaur Discovered in China by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Jan 30, 2015 2:33 PM UTC  Three clawed Japanese dragon decorates copy of a plaque of cloisonne enamel in the British Museum. Three clawed Japanese dragon decorates copy of a plaque of cloisonne enamel in the British Museum.Time Life Pictures—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Jan 30, 2015 2:33 PM UTC Paleontologists in Qijiang city, China [have discovered](http://edition.cnn.com/2015/01/30/asia/china-dragon-dinosaur/index.html) a new species of dinosaur whose physical characteristics bear resemblance to a dragon. The creature likely lived 160 million years ago and stretched 50 feet long, with an elongated neck. Local farmers who saw the fossils noticed the similarity and gave the dinosaur its name: Qijianglong, or the “dragon of Qijiang.” ### See 40 Stunning Images Captured Through A Microscope  Jumping spider eyes at 20x magnification. Noah Fram-Schwartz  A bed bug at 50x magnification. Stefano Barone  A mite in a forest at 10x magnification. José R. Almodóvar  Cultured embryonic chicken dorsal root ganglia neuron explant at 60x magnification. Dr. Michael John Bridge  A crawling bone cancer cell at 8000x magnification. Dr. Dylan T. Burnette  Active fluid flow around P. damicornis at 4x magnification Dr. Douglas Brumley  A Chrysochroa buqueti (jewel beetle) at 45x magnification. Charles Krebs  Focal conic-like domain with varying degrees of modulation and checkerboard patterns at 40x magnification. Dr. Rajdeep Deb  ALeptothorax acervorum (ant) carrying its larva at 5x magnification. Geir Drange  A sagittal brain slice showing cell nuclei at 40x magnification. Dr. Marco Dal Maschio  A mouse brain vasculature at 2x magnification. Dr. Ali Erturk  A Tradescantia zebrina (wandering jew) leaf stomata at 40x magnification. Dr. Jerzy Gubernator  A Tigriopus californicus (copepod) at 10x magnification. Dr. Terue Kihara  A Chrysochroa buqueti (jewel beetle) carapace, near eye at 450x magnification. Charles Krebs  Live zebrafish embryo at 22 hours post-fertilization. Dr. Philipp Keller  A Casuarina equisetifolia (beach oak) twigs at 125x magnification. Anatoly Mikhaltsov  Bovine pulmonary artery endothelial cells. Dr. Muthugapatti K. Kandasamy  A Vespula vulgaris (common wasp) stinger at 5x magnification. Geir Drange  An ant eye at 20x magnification. Noah Fram-Schwartz  Conichalcite pseudomorph after azurite at 6x magnification. Honorio Cócera-La Parra  Pleurosigma angulatum (diatoms) at 100x magnification. Christian Gautier  Lilium anther, second division tetrads at 500x magnification. Raymond Sloss  Montana Dryhead agate at 50x magnification. Douglas L. Moore  Tripolycyanamide crystal at 100x magnification. Yanping Wang  A young starfish at 5x magnification. Steven Wilbert  A Solea sp. (fish) at 25x magnification. David Linstead  Pleurotaenium ovatum (micro algae) at 40x magnification. Rogelio Moreno Gill  A Magnesium chloride and potassium alum mixture at 25x magnification. Chao Zhang  A rhombohedral cleavage in calcite crystal at 10x magnification. Alessandro Da Mommio  Marine algae at 40x magnification. Waldo Nell  A Ceriodaphnia sp. (water flea) at 20x magnification. Rogelio Moreno Gill  A snowflake at 8x magnification. Michael Peres  A Shipworm Lyrodus pedicellatus and a wood-boring mussel at 20x magnification. Andrea Wurzinger-Mayer  Anagallis arvensis (scarlet pimpernel) at 80x magnification. Jens H. Petersen  A flower embryo at 40x magnification. Samuel Silberman  The underside of a Brown dog tick and Lonestar tick at 100x magnification. Dr. Igor Robert Siwanowicz  Living Micrasterias in contrast Interphako at 100 magnification. Frank Fox  Recrystallized bismuth iodide at 100x magnification. Sebastian Blaise Sparenga  A Hydra and Volvox at 10x magnification. Steven Wilbert  Appendages of a common brine shrimp at 100x magnification. Dr. Igor Robert Siwanowicz The Qijianglong belongs to the mamenchisaurids group of dinosaurs, found only in Asia and known for necks that can make up half the length of their bodies. By comparison, the sauropoda family that includes better-known dinosaurs like the Apatosaurus ([a.k.a. Brontosaurus](http://www.npr.org/2012/12/09/166665795/forget-extinct-the-brontosaurus-never-even-existed)) have necks that span only a third of their bodies. The research team found the vertebrae, skull and tail (but not the hand or leg bones) in a site where a fish pond was being dug. The skeleton is temporarily on display in a local museum, but will move to a dinosaur museum in the city that is still under construction. \[[_CNN_](http://edition.cnn.com/2015/01/30/asia/china-dragon-dinosaur/index.html)\] _Read next:_ [_Obama Moves to Protect 12 Million Acres of Alaskan Wildlife_](http://time.com/3681751/white-house-arctic-refuge/?xid=time%5Freadnext) [_Listen to the most important stories of the day._](http://time.com/newsletter/the-brief/?sl%5Fautoplay=true&xid=spl-fullbrief-article) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3689274/dragon-dinosaur/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3689274/dragon-dinosaur/"},"headline":"New Dragon-Like Dinosaur Discovered in China","datePublished":"2015-01-30T14:33:30.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:05:57.384Z","description":"The Qijianglong has a neck that's half the length of its body","url":"https://time.com/3689274/dragon-dinosaur/","keywords":["Paleontology","China"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcb53c49068b1e4d1/69877cc50b72e310086dd6d6/dragon.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sarah Begley","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcb53c49068b1e4d1/69877cc50b72e310086dd6d6/dragon.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Three clawed Japanese dragon decorates c","caption":"Three clawed Japanese dragon decorates c","creditText":"Time Life Pictures—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/paleontology/","name":"Paleontology"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3689274/dragon-dinosaur/","name":"New Dragon-Like Dinosaur Discovered in China"}}]}] ```