On July 22, the reporter learned from the Shunyi District Cultural Relics Management Institute that a few days ago, a civil engineering worker accidentally found a paleontological fossil in the sand pile, which was identified as an ancient diamond tooth fossil, about 30,000 to 50,000 years old, extremely rare and precious, and provided important research evidence for the study of local paleontology and geology.
Fossil teeth of the ancient rhombus
On the evening of July 19, Mr. Wang dragged a truckload of sand to a construction site in Shunyi. While unloading sand, he accidentally found a large stone in the sand pile. He used his hand to sweep the sand and looked closely, and there was a row of giant teeth on the stone. Mr. Wang carefully planed this "strange stone" out of the sand pile, carefully examined it, and the more he looked at it, the more he felt that this "strange stone" was a fossil of some kind of ancient creature. Unable to determine its historical value, he contacted the Shunyi District Cultural Relics Management Office for the first time.
Mr. Wang who provided clues
After learning the news, the joint law enforcement team of the Shunyi District Cultural Relics Management Office immediately rushed to the scene for inspection. After the preliminary identification of staff and paleontological expert Qi Dongfa, the "strange stone" found by Mr. Wang is indeed a paleontological fossil, and it is a very precious tooth fossil of the ancient rhododron, which is about 30,000 to 50,000 years old. The whole fossil was measured to be 45 cm long, 21 cm wide, 23 cm high and weighed 9.2 kg. The staff transported this ancient diamond tooth fossil to the Shunyi District Cultural Relics Management Office overnight for safekeeping, and will be used for research and study.
The staff of the Shunyi District Cultural Relics Institute cleaned up the fossils
"The fossil teeth of the ancient rhombus tooth that are well preserved like this are precious, it is rarer than the fossil bones, and it has important research value for studying the climate, environment and geographical landforms of the ancient era in the Beijing area." Shi Wenfang, a staff member of the Shunyi District Cultural Relics Management Office, said that it is a pity that mr. Wang is not very clear where the fossil was dug up and where it was mixed with sand; but it can be judged that the location where it was unearthed will not be very far from Beijing. There is news that fossils of ancient diamond tooth elephants have been found in Huairou, Fangshan, Hebei and other places, and a relatively complete fossil of ancient diamond tooth elephant excavated in Yangjiapo Village of Qian'an City in 1991 is preserved in the Qian'an Museum, which also proves that the ancient diamond tooth elephant lived in this area tens of thousands of years ago.
According to reports, the ancient rhodontent is the largest elephant known so far, and an adult ancient rhodontent weighs about 10 tons to 14 tons. The ancient rhodontent is mainly distributed in North China and East China, and has long lived in mountains or forests. The origin of its name is because it has strange teeth like plate tooth elephants, and its molars will take on a diamond-shaped shape when they are run-in to a certain extent, so it is called ancient diamond tooth elephant.
The staff of the Shunyi District Cultural Relics Institute issued a certificate to the donor, Mr. Wang
According to the staff, in recent years, with the continuous improvement of the public awareness of cultural relics protection, more and more citizens are enthusiastic about donating cultural relics, and the Shunyi District Cultural Relics Management Institute hopes that more social groups and individuals will devote themselves to the ranks of cultural relics protection.
Source: Beijing Daily Client | Reporter Chu Yingshuo Correspondent Shi Wenfang
Process Edit: U016
Copyright Notice: The text copyright belongs to The Beijing News Group and may not be reproduced or adapted without permission.