Guo Jin, deputy director of the World Natural Heritage Museum of Chengjiang Fossil Land: Obsessed with the study of paleontological fossils to explore the code of life evolution

From a graduate student to a paleontology major, guo Jin, deputy director of the World Natural Heritage Museum of Chengjiang Fossil Land, has guarded and studied the world-class resource of Chengjiang biota with a "obsessive heart" for paleontology, traveling through hundreds of millions of years of time and space, and unremittingly exploring the code of life evolution.

Chengjiang fossils made him remember

Guo Jin is related to the Chengjiang fossil. Guo Jin university undergraduate major in resource exploration engineering of Kunming University of Science and Technology. In their junior year, a teacher who taught paleontology and geology took them to Yunnan University, and a fine Chengjiang fossil specimen such as a trilobite in an exhibition hall attracted Guo Jin.

"At that time, I felt that these fossils were exquisite, good-looking, and very important, and I never forgot them when I saw them." Guo Jin said.

In his senior year, Guo Jin obtained a master's degree in paleontology and stratigraphy from Yunnan University, and his supervisor was Hou Xianguang, the discoverer of the Chengjiang biota. On the recommendation of Hou Xianguang, he entered the Chengjiang Animal Fossil Group Provincial Nature Reserve Management Committee to engage in fossil research related work, which began his pursuit of more than 500 million years of life course.

The success of the application forced him to improve himself

32 years before Guo Jin engaged in paleontological research, Hou Xianguang discovered the world-famous Chengjiang biota in the early Cambrian strata of the Chengjiang Hat Tianshan Mountains. The discovery of the Chengjiang biota has been called "one of the most astonishing discoveries of the 20th century" by the world's scientific community, opening up an important and innovative research field for early life science research.

During the three years of his master's degree, he was in contact with Chengjiang fossils almost every day, and the research thinking and methods of his supervisor greatly improved his paleontological knowledge system. In 2010, he returned to the unit and continued to work.

On July 1, 2012, chengjiang fossil site was successfully declared a world natural heritage, opening a new era of chengjiang fossil protection and research. For Guo Jin, who is engaged in fossil research, although he has participated in some national and provincial key projects, after the successful application for heritage, he participated in guarding this world-class fossil treasure house, and he increasingly felt that his knowledge reserve was insufficient. On August 10, 2020, the Chengjiang Fossil Land Natural Museum opened, pushing open a window for the world to see the Chengjiang River, the province, domestic and even international exchanges increased, Guo Jin believes that many domestic fossil museums are based on universities or research institutes as research subjects, such as the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yunnan University, etc., strong scientific research strength, and has an international exchange platform, in Chengjiang local urgent need to cultivate, set up their own team, in order to strengthen scientific research, management and science popularization and other work. As a professional and technical staff in the museum, he continues to work hard to improve his professional level, and is currently pursuing a doctoral degree in ecology at Yunnan University.

Hammer after hammer out of the research results

The Chengjiang biota has experienced more than 500 million years of vicissitudes and layers of weathered rocks eroded by the years, witnessing and recording the miracle of the explosion of life on earth. How to guard and understand this "wordless heavenly book", there is no shortcut to go, to improve the level of scientific research, can not rely on book knowledge alone, but also have to adhere to the field collection of specimens. This was the inspiration he got from the process of discovering the Chengjiang biota by his mentor Hou Xianguang. At that time, Hou Xianguang dug up many fossils scattered in Jinning and Anning. After going to Chengjiang, I first went to Hongjiachong, and finally on a rainy day, in a field collection in the Hat Tianshan Mountains, three complete animal fossils such as Naro worm were found, and after consulting a large number of materials and comparing with the Canadian Burgess biota, it was confirmed that this was a new evidence of the Cambrian life explosion.

The combination of interest and work may be an important "method" to produce work results, coupled with the inheritance of the supervisor's working methods, for more than ten years, Guo Jin has contributed his own strength to the application, protection and research of Chengjiang fossil sites with his own expertise: completed the collection, restoration and collation of fossil specimens totaling more than 30,000 pieces; published 4 SCI papers (including 1 sci first author, 1 first author of CN literature, 1 core journal of Chinese, and 1 participating English monograph); completed the declaration of 1 provincial and ministerial scientific research project. Guo Jin is the project host.

Presided over the collection of more than 9,000 fossil specimens

Walking into the Chengjiang Fossil Land World Natural Heritage Museum, the magic and beauty of the earth's biodiversity displayed by a variety of biological specimens from all over the world will amaze visitors. Behind this is the hardship of the exhibit collection team.

Between 2018 and 2020, the museum's exhibit collection team traveled more than 60 times before and after, and Guo Jin presided over the collection of more than 9,000 fossil specimens (including Triassic fossils, Hezheng fauna, Rehe biota, glacial biota, Shanwang Basin, Green River biota, Moroccan trilobite, Burgess fauna, Edicala biota, etc.).

The process of solicitation is not only arduous, but also dangerous. Recalling the trip to Gansu and Zheng, Guo Jin still has lingering palpitations. One day in October 2019, at about 6 p.m., Guo Jinhe and the collection team inspected a cave in Hezheng, Gansu. Since there was no light source in the cave, they could only turn on their mobile phones to illuminate it, and when they came out, it was more than 10 o'clock in the evening. At this time, I heard the locals say that this kind of hole often collapsed, and the companions could not help but be afraid.

Elected deputy to the National People's Congress, pay attention to the protection of fossil resources

In March 2018, Guo Jin was elected as a deputy to the 13th National People's Congress. Since then, during his term as deputy, he has put forward more than 10 suggestions, focusing on the protection of fossil resources, the protection of Fuxian Lake and other social hotspots.

In the more than two years of collecting exhibits, Guo Jin found that there was an urgent need to regulate fossil protection and legal trade in China. Therefore, during the "two sessions" of the National People's Congress in 2019, he submitted suggestions as a deputy to the National People's Congress.

He said that relevant domestic laws and regulations have played an important role in the protection of paleontological fossil resources, especially effectively cutting off the loss of fossil resources overseas. In order to protect fossil resources, local governments have also adopted compulsory measures and means accordingly. However, driven by high profits, fossil traffickers always trade privately in the name of fossil enthusiasts or an association, forming an invisible market, and it is difficult for law enforcement departments to supervise the corresponding regulations. He suggested that the standardization and legalization of the collection of specimens in various museums should be improved, so that really good specimens can be collected in museums; and the collection methods and funds used by universities and scientific research institutes for paleontological fossil research specimens should be standardized.

Travel through hundreds of millions of years to discover the code of life

In this discipline with millions of years as a unit, through hundreds of millions of years, decoding the history of the birth and evolution of life is inseparable from the reverence for life and the spirit of bravely climbing the peak of science.

The Cambrian explosion of life is a result, so where is the source? How long is it? How many outbreaks have there been? What contributed to the outbreak?

These questions have been haunting Guo Jin's mind. In the face of pieces of paleontological fossils that are not beautiful, laymen often focus on whether the fossils are exquisite, and in Guo Jin's eyes, whether the important structure of ancient organisms is completely preserved is the focus of his attention.

In the industry for more than ten years, his original intention has not changed, and his interest has not diminished.

"The study of paleontology, which used to be work, is now integrated into life. Eating and sleeping are thinking about these questions. Guo Jin said that when going out, as long as you see the formation, you want to use the geological hammer to knock it to see what is inside. (Yuxi Daily all-media reporter Jiang Yue)