Chinese and Canadian scientists hunted dinosaurs from the Arctic to Xinjiang

In April 1986, the China-Canada Dinosaur Project began, with fieldwork planned from 1986 to 1990 in Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang and Arctic Canada. ^[1] It set out to study ancient strata in northern China and North America and the relationship between the dinosaurs of Asia and North America. ^[2] A brochure from the Ex Terra Foundation, which started the project, noted that many dinosaurs found in Canada are remarkably similar to those found in China. ^[3] In July 1986, Chinese palaeontologists Dong Zhiming and Yu Chao led a team to Alberta and the Nunavut region to explore the Arctic continental shelf and its fossils. ^[2]

Philip J. Currie was prominently involved in the project in the late 1980s. ^[4] Peigan elder Joe Crowshoe and his son Reggie accompanied the expedition in Xinjiang, taking four tipis to give to the Kazakh people in a cultural exchange that would bring two yurts to Alberta. ^[3] In 1987 the joint team discovered fossils of Mamenchisaurus sinocanadorum at Jiangjun Gobi, on the eastern edge of the Junggar Basin in Xinjiang. ^[5][6] Its fossils included some vertebrae and a rib. ^[6]

The cooperation continued into the late 1990s, with Currie making regular trips to China and hosting researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences at the Royal Tyrrell. ^[4] In a study published in March 2023, Andrew Moore and colleagues compared the dinosaur's vertebrae with more complete specimens and estimated its neck at 15.1 metres, the longest on record. ^[6]