Haolong

What it was like

Haolong is a newly named hadrosauroid, an early relative of the duck-billed dinosaurs, known from a single, well-preserved skeleton found with traces of its skin. It was a plant eater, and its skeleton is complete enough that paleontologists can study its whole body rather than working from scattered pieces, which is rare for a dinosaur this early in hadrosauroid evolution.

Its world

Haolong lived from about 126 to 121 million years ago, in the Early Cretaceous, in what is now China. Its bones come from the Yixian Formation, a site known for preserving fine details like feathers and skin alongside bone. It shared this world with early tyrannosauroids such as Yutyrannus and feathered dinosaurs including Sinosauropteryx and Caudipteryx.

How it was found

Huang and colleagues named Haolong in 2026, giving it the species name Haolong dongi. It is closely related to other early hadrosauroids such as Fukuisaurus and Bactrosaurus, and as one of the most recently named dinosaurs from the Yixian Formation, much about its life and habits is still being worked out.