Beibeilong

baby dragon

• beibei · Chinese (Mandarin) · baby
• long · Chinese (Mandarin) · dragon

The name comes from Chinese: "beibei" means "baby" and "long" means "dragon", so it means "baby dragon". It refers to the fact that the type specimen is a baby (perinate) found curled up inside or on a giant egg. The specimen was known informally as "Baby Louie" before it was formally named.

Named by

Pu et al.

Year named

2017

Period

Late Cretaceous

Found in

Qiaotou Formation, Henan Province, China

A giant caenagnathid oviraptorosaur. The type species is Beibeilong sinensis. The specimens are embryonic or perinate individuals associated with Macroelongatoolithus eggs, which can be more than 40 cm long. Adults are estimated to have been several metres long and very large for an oviraptorosaur.