New Gansu Gansu Daily reporter Lan Tian
"It's called 'Hezheng Sheep', but it's not a sheep, it's a cow!" In the hezheng paleozoological fossil museum and the exhibition area of the zhengyang restoration specimen, a child who came to visit was surprised and asked the docent for verification.
"Yes, although the Hezheng sheep is close to the living sheep in terms of individual size and posture, its skull structure, horn morphology and neck features are closer to that of the musk ox, and it is an early ancestor type of musk ox." The museum docent said.
Starting from Linxia City, driving along the Uma Highway for more than 30 kilometers, the reporter arrived at the Hezheng Ancient Animal Fossil Museum. It is the only paleovertebrate fossil museum in China, which is a thematic museum that mainly collects and displays late Cenozoic paleo-mammal fossils. The collection is home to six of the world's largest – the world's unique Hezheng sheep, the world's richest fossil of a shovel-toothed elephant, the world's largest real horse "Ezekiel", the world's largest three-toed horse fossil, the world's largest hyena "giant hyena", and the world's earliest fossil of a woolly rhinoceros skull.
"There are more than 30,000 fossil specimens in the collection, belonging to more than 150 genera in 3 classes and 8 orders, with an age span of between 30 million and 2 million years, and their number is rich, the variety is extensive, and the preservation is rare in the world." He Wen, director of the Hezheng Paleozoological Fossil Museum, introduced.
Fossil specimen of Hezheng sheep
Deep inside the museum, the scattered fossils of different shapes silently tell the story of biological evolution: from ancient times, a song of life, change, creation, growth, destruction. The sun and moon change, the bucket turns to the stars, and the hunter and the prey are deposited together and return to heaven and earth.
According to expert research, in the Middle Ages, which is 24 million to 5.2 million years old, the Linxia Basin was once a subtropical - warm temperate climate environment, the basin is dotted with lakes, rivers are meandering, lush grass, birds and flowers, and it is a paradise for various animals to flourish in ancient times. However, due to the influence of the uplift and change of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the climate has gradually become colder, the living environment has become increasingly harsh, and a large number of mammals have changed their lives and deaths on this land, thus forming today's precious paleontological fossil group.
"The discovery of Hezheng paleontological fossils provides important information for the evolution of China's paleoclimate in the late Tertiary Period and the uplift history of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and has high research and exhibition value." He Wen said that with the protection and research of fossil specimens, the ancient animal remains of Hezheng will surely become an important prehistoric natural heritage in the world.
As a bridge connecting different time and space, the collection of the Hezheng Museum of Paleozoological Fossils not only depicts the past, but also becomes an important carrier for human beings to explore the origin of life, but also becomes a magical treasure book for viewing and drawing the future in modern history. Tens of millions of years ago, the Linxia Basin was once a paradise for ancient creatures, and with the passage of time, the vicissitudes of the sea and the mulberry fields, the land of Linxia is still full of vitality.
"From the study of paleontological fossils, we can extract a lot of laws that are worth learning." He Wen said to reporters, "People live in this environment, the most important thing is to coexist and develop with nature, through better protection and research, interpret the biological code, so that more ordinary people can understand nature, recognize the law of the development of nature, I think, this is the charm of science and the significance of research." ”
Fossil specimen of a shovel-toothed elephant
The only surviving fossil of a series of shovel-toothed elephant skulls in the world