A villager in northwest China's Qinghai Province has discovered a rare fossilized animal skeleton while digging a well in his courtyard.

Local archaeologists believed the skeleton to be 10,000 years old. However, they couldn't tell what kind of animal it is.

Ye Maolin, a research fellow with the Institute of Archaeology under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, confirmed that the animal is a vegetarian judging from its teeth. "It's definitely not a dinosaur," he said.

The villager, named Ye Yuqing, found the head and neck of the animal after digging a meter below the ground surface. He immediately stopped digging and reported what he saw to the local government.

"The animal head is much bigger than that of a horse and the exposed part of the neck is about one meter long," Ye said.

"It's seldom to see such a big animal in this area and further study will be conducted to find out what on earth the animal is," said Ye Maolin.

(Xinhua News Agency November 24, 2005)