China's dinosaur discoveries – in pictures

Guanlong – 'A very strange primitive tyrannosaur with a huge crest on its head,' says Professor Xu Xing. Found in northern Xinjiang, Guanlong dates from the late Jurassic, predating T Rex by about 95 million years
Illustration: Natural History Museum

Tarbosaurus
Illustration: Age of the Dinosaur exhibition/Natural History Museum

Meilong – 'A lovely dinosaur, very small'. It was found in Liaoning and dates from the early Cretaceous. 'Very rarely do fossils preserve behavioural information, like how the animal slept – this was one of them. It preserves a sleeping posture very similar to modern birds'
Illustration: Mick Ellison

Limusaurus – 'It's not only the first Jurassic toothless therapod dinosaur, it also has a highly reduced first finger.' Xu believes it helps to explain how dinosaurs lost their fingers and bird wings evolved. Found in western China
Illustration: Portia Sloan

Incisivosaurus – 'It has very bizarre front teeth, a bit like a rabbit,' says Xu. It is a herbivorous theropod, perhaps a metre long, from the early Cretaceous. Found in Liaoning province
Illustration: Portia Sloan

Gigantoraptor – 'Normally, oviraptors are very small. No one expected one with a size comparable to some tyrannosaurs [more than 8 metres long], and it has many interesting features.' Found in the Gobi desert, it dates to the late Cretaceous
Illustration: Portia Sloan

Beipiaosaurus
Illustration: Zhao Chuang and Xing Lida