240 million year old dragon discovered in China the world

The reptile was first identified in 2003. Professor Li Chun of the Institute of Paleoanthropology in Beijing was visiting a small village in southern China's Guizhou Province when he discovered a small vertebra in a limestone cave.

Since then, more fossils have been discovered – one complete and another with a fish still in its stomach – and a team of scientists from Scotland, Germany, America and China are working to recreate the ancient animal. Now they are able to photograph it for the first time, the National Museum of Scotland wrote in a press release.

This is what the reptile looked like

Called Dinocephalosaurus orientalis, this reptile had an “extremely long” and possibly flexible neck containing 32 vertebrae, was five meters long and was adapted to life in the water. It lived during the Triassic Period, which occurred 201-251 million years ago.

“Among all the extraordinary finds we have made from the Triassic period in Guizhou Province, this is the most amazing,” Liqun said in a statement.

Fellow researcher Nick Fraser, at the National Museum of Scotland, says:

-We are sure that it will capture the imagination of people all over the world with its stunning appearance. It is reminiscent of the long, snake-like Chinese mythical dragon.

Similar to the predecessor of Loch Ness

Dinocephalosaurus orientalis also resembles another ancient aquatic reptile: Tanystropheus hydroides, which evolved about 40 million years later and inspired the legend of the Loch Ness Monster.

However, Dinocephalosaurus orientalis had a larger number of vertebrae in both its neck and torso, and the two reptiles were not related at all, according to the National Museum of Scotland.

The researchers' findings were published in the journal Earth and Environmental Sciences: Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.