Chinese Paleontologists Create Full Rendering of Dinosaur Walking on Two Feet

An artist’s rendering of Auroraceratops. (Robert Walters)
An artist’s rendering of Auroraceratops. (Robert Walters)
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Chinese Paleontologists Create Full Rendering of Dinosaur Walking on Two Feet

An artist’s rendering of Auroraceratops. (Robert Walters)
An artist’s rendering of Auroraceratops. (Robert Walters)

Paleontologists have created a full rendering of a dinosaur walking on two feet.

The involved paleontologists managed to complete their rendering based on a series of articles appearing as Memoir in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology on July 8.

The Auroraceratops was one of many dinosaur species known from scant remains. It was named in 2005 based upon a single skull from the Gobi Desert in northwestern China.

But, in the intervening years, scientists have recovered fossils from more than 80 individual Auroraceratops, bringing this small-bodied plant-eater into one of the few very early horned dinosaurs known from complete skeletons.

In the new Memoir, researchers from the University of Pennsylvania, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Gansu Agricultural University, described the anatomy and evolution of Auroraceratops.

Their analysis places Auroraceratops, which lived roughly 115 million years ago, as an early member of the group Ceratopsia, or horned dinosaurs, the same group to which Triceratops belongs.

In contrast to Triceratops, Auroraceratops is small, approximately 49 inches (1.25 meters) in length and 17 inches (44 cm) tall, weighing on average 34 pounds (15.5 kilograms).

While Auroraceratops has a short frill and beak that characterize it as a horned dinosaur, it lacks the "true" horns and extensive cranial ornamentation of Triceratops.

The paleontologists also provided a more detailed description, saying the Auroraceratops preserves multiple features of the skeleton, like a curved femur and long, thin claws that are unambiguously associated with walking bipedally.

Eric Morschhauser, head of the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania, said: "This rendering can now provide us with a better picture of the starting point for the changes between bipedal and quadrupedal dinosaurs."

"Before this rendering, we had to rely on Psittacosaurus for our picture of what the last bipedal dinosaur looked like,” he added.



China to Offer Childcare Subsidies in Bid to Boost Birth Rate 

People push baby strollers along a business street in Beijing on July 13, 2021. (AFP)
People push baby strollers along a business street in Beijing on July 13, 2021. (AFP)
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China to Offer Childcare Subsidies in Bid to Boost Birth Rate 

People push baby strollers along a business street in Beijing on July 13, 2021. (AFP)
People push baby strollers along a business street in Beijing on July 13, 2021. (AFP)

China's government will offer subsidies to parents to the tune of $500 per child under the age of three per year, Beijing's state media said Monday, as the world's second most populous nation faces a looming demographic crisis.

The country's population has declined for three consecutive years, with United Nations demography models predicting it could fall from 1.4 billion today to 800 million by 2100.

The nationwide subsidies apply retroactively from January 1, Beijing's state broadcaster CCTV said, citing a decision by the ruling Communist Party and the State Council, China's cabinet.

"This is a major nationwide policy aimed at improving public wellbeing," CCTV said.

"It provides direct cash subsidies to families across the country, helping to reduce the burden of raising children," it added.

There were just 9.54 million births in China last year, half the number than in 2016, the year it ended its one-child policy, which was in place for more than three decades.

The population declined by 1.39 million last year, and China lost its crown as the world's most populous country to India in 2023.

Marriage rates are also at record low levels, in a country where many young couples have been put off having children by high child-rearing costs and career concerns.

Many local governments have already rolled out subsidies to encourage childbirth.

In March, Hohhot, the capital of China's northern Inner Mongolia region, began offering residents up to 100,000 yuan ($14,000) per newborn for couples with three or more children, while first and second children will be eligible for 10,000 and 50,000 yuan subsidies.

In Shenyang, in northeastern Liaoning province, local authorities give families who have a third child 500 yuan per month until the child turns three.

Hangzhou, in eastern Zhejiang province, offers a one-time payment of 25,000 yuan to couples who have a third child.

More than 20 provincial-level administrations in the country now offer childcare subsidies, according to official data.

Premier Li Qiang vowed to provide childcare subsidies during the government's annual work report in March.

The country's shrinking population is also ageing fast, which has sparked worries about the future of the country's pension system.

There were nearly 310 million aged 60 and over in 2024.