Speak beautiful jade strange stone words Hua Tianbao
Kanqian Mountain Guishui analysis of the ghostly work
Then in the last issue of "Stone Kan Guizhou| the pattern in the stone turned out to be the real "Book of Heaven"),We went on to introduce the common paleontological fossils in Guizhou.
coral
Coral is an ancient marine animal, still very prosperous, like warm and clean water, China's South China Sea islands are composed of coral reefs. Corals appeared very early, originally thought to have occurred 240 million years ago, and in recent years, Japanese scholars have believed that they appeared 500 million years ago. Coral fossils in Guizhou have two major categories: monomer corals and group corals, which are widely distributed. One of the monomer corals is named after Guizhou, called Guizhou Coral, and its fossils are very similar to yellow bull horns. The profile of the colon coral can be seen under the microscope with its beautiful pattern.
Guizhou corals
Group corals (left) Group coral cross-section micrograph (right, picture from the Institute of Geology, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, "Regional Geology of China" and "Compilation of Sedimentary Rock Identification Manual" project)
Fossils
䗴, also known as spindle worm, is also a common type of paleontological fossils in Guizhou, and some limestones are almost entirely composed of fossils. It is a marine animal that has been extinct, the small ones are like barnyard seeds, and the large ones are no more than the size of bean grains. It first appeared in the Late Early Carboniferous period, about 330 million years ago, with small individuals; by the Permian, it reached its full heyday, the individuals enlarged and the structure was complex; and by the end of the Permian Period, about 225 million years ago, it was extinct. It has a short history of geological history, with a total life experience of about 100 million years. A total of more than 200 genera and more than 6,000 subgenera species were bred. Because of its rapid evolution, it is a relatively "accurate" geological clock, and is one of the important fossils to classify and compare the Carboniferous and Permian marine strata in detail. The Permian strata of Guizhou produce many limestones containing fossils.
Microscopic photo of the profile of the fossil (picture from the "Chinese Regional Geology" and "Sedimentary Rock Identification Manual Compilation" project of the Institute of Geology of the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences)
Laminated stone
Stromatolite is a fossil formed by the bonding and precipitation of calcium, magnesium carbonate and their clastic particles in seawater by algae in the process of life activities. With the change of seasons and the speed of growth and precipitation, a complex layer of dark and light layers is formed. The color layer structure of stromatolites has striated layers, spherical, hemispherical, columnar, cone and branches. Stromatolite is a very old and "long-lived" fossil. The world's oldest stromatolites are found in southern Africa and are isotopic at about 2.8 billion years old. Stromatolite is also produced in Guizhou.
Stromatolite (left, courtesy of Chen Minghua) under the microscope (right, picture from the Institute of Geology, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, "Regional Geology of China" and "Compilation of Sedimentary Rock Identification Manual" project)
In addition to the above paleontological fossils, the next one to introduce is more novel and special, let us take a look!
Fossils of the half-toothed turtle
The half-toothed turtle, the oldest and most primitive turtle known, is a small aquatic reptile that lived in the early Late Triassic 220 million years ago, with a body length of 30 to 50 cm. Because only the abdomen has a complete carapace and the back carapace is underdeveloped, with fine and sharp teeth, it is called a half-toothed turtle. The fossil of the half-beetle-toothed turtle was discovered by Li Chun, an associate researcher at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Wang Liting, a researcher at the Guizhou Geological Survey, in the early 2000s near Shaxing Village in Xinpu Township, Guanling Autonomous County.
Fossils of the half-toothed turtle and their restoration
Newly laid Chinese bean tooth dragon fossils
Xinpu Chinese bean tooth dragon, its fossil found in Xinpu Township, Guanling Autonomous County. The fossil of " Beantooth " is not large , with a total length of about 50 to 150 cm , of which the tail length accounts for nearly half , the dorsal carapace is intact , and there is no abdominal carapace. The dorsal carapace is composed of dozens of bone plates, the vast majority of which are basically hexagonal in shape, with different degrees of bulges in the center. This "dragon" looks a lot like a turtle.
Newly laid chinese bean tooth dragon fossil and its restoration map
(Some of the pictures are from the Internet)