China identifies dinosaur with bow-shaped hip bone

Paleontologists in China's Shandong province have named a new dinosaur species in the genus leptoceratops after its unique hip bone.

The partial skeleton of ischioceratops zhuchengensis, which lived during the Cretaceous Period -- the last dinosaur era, was found in the world's largest dinosaur fossil field at Zhucheng, according to the local dinosaur research centre.

Leptoceratops are small, herbivorous dinosaurs that walked on four legs but could probably stand or walk on their hind legs alone, Xinhua news agency reported.

The new species features a re-curve bow-shaped ischium (back and lower part of the hip bone), which has an obturator process in the middle part and an axehead-shaped expansion at the distal end.

More than ten new dinosaur species have been discovered at Zhucheng.