Since 2001, in a quarry, remains of the sauropod "Sonidosaurus" had been uncovered. In April 2005 Chinese paleontologist Xu Xing was asked to reenact the discovery of "Sonidosaurus" for a Japanese documentary. Xu obliged them by digging out a thighbone. As he wiped the bone clean, he suddenly realized it was not from a sauropod, but from an unidentifiable theropod about the size of "Albertosaurus". He stopped the filming to secure the serendipitous find. This way, the discovery of the "Gigantoraptor" fossil was captured on videotape.