On June 17, a team of scholars released the footprints of Cretaceous dinosaurs found in Tancheng, Shandong Province. Located in Lizhuang Town, Tancheng County, Linyi City, this footprint site consists of more than 300 fossil footprints of dinosaurs and birds, the most interesting of which is the 4 parallel small dinosaur footprints, which is said to be the first time in the world that this type of dinosaur has been found to have social evidence.
In 2015, it was these near-circular sauropod dinosaur footprints that caught Tang Yonggang's attention.
It was discovered by chance three years ago and officially began its expedition last year
Maling Mountain, spanning three counties in Linshu, Tancheng and Xinyi, Jiangsu, is a low hill that stretches for more than 60 kilometers from north to south, and is named after a galloping horse. Jinjiling on Maling Mountain is famous for its diamond production, and local residents have found two of the largest natural diamonds produced in China on the nearby surface, weighing 281.25 and 157.786 carats respectively.
On February 24, 2015, the sixth day of the Lunar New Year, Tang Yonggang, a well-known "fossil hunter", adjunct professor of the Institute of Geology and Paleontology of Linyi University, and Liu Yang, a fossil enthusiast, drove from Linyi to Jinjiling to "treasure hunting", they originally planned to see if there were any diamond deposits here. "I saw a man-made pond with rock formations on the shore, and I walked down a dozen steps to find sauropod footprints." Tang Yonggang is familiar with all kinds of dinosaur footprints, and has previously found dinosaur footprint fossils in many places, and dinosaur footprint fossils have been found many times in the Maling Mountain area.
To the surprise of Tang Yonggang and his party, after a simple cleanup, they found nearly 200 fossil Cretaceous dinosaur footprints dating back more than 100 million years ago, including small dinosaur footprints, as well as clear rain marks, mud cracks, water ripples and other imprints left on the rocks. In addition, the four two-toed dinosaur footprints that are basically straight and moving in the same direction have attracted the attention of Tang Yonggang, "Previously, there was controversy in the academic community about whether such dinosaurs lived in groups or alone, and this footprint may be direct evidence of the sociality of such dinosaurs." ”
"At that time, there were no conditions for formal inspection, so I put it away first." Tang Yonggang introduced that this dinosaur footprint fossil group is close to the village, and it is possible to rush to investigate without detailed conclusions, and it will also lead to damage to the fossils. Until April 2017, the village was relocated as a whole due to local developments. Led by Associate Professor Xing Lida of China University of Geosciences (Beijing), Professor Wang Xiaoli of the Institute of Geology and Paleontology of Linyi University, Zhang Junqiang, Dr. Guo Ying, and others, a team began a joint investigation of the fossil group of dinosaur footprints.
6 classes of dinosaurs and birds, leaving more than 300 footprints
On June 17, with the publication of relevant papers in the international academic journal "Cretaceous Research", which focuses on paleontology and geology, the expedition team officially released the results of the expedition. Although the team's on-site inspection is only 3 days, the later data comparison, digital model production, paper writing, proofreading and other copywriting work is very cumbersome, lasting nearly half a year, plus the experts still need to review after the paper submission, so from the formal inspection to the public announcement of the results is only more than a year apart.
In the Cretaceous rock formations of Jinjiling in Lizhuang Town, Tancheng County, they found more than 300 footprints of 7 types of dinosaurs and birds in 6 categories. Among them, there are 4 small dinosaur footprints that are parallel and traveling in the same direction, indicating that there were at least 4 small dinosaurs moving together. More importantly, it directly confirms the social life characteristics of small dinosaurs.
"These 4 rows of footprints belong to the dinosaur-like footprints of the dinosaurs, bipedal carnivorous dinosaurs, their hind limbs have 4 toes, the first toe is degenerate, and the second toe is high and upturned like a sickle, which can stab the body of the prey at once when preying. When they walk, they leave behind two-toe footprints formed by the third and fourth toes. On the morning of June 21, at the dinosaur footprint fossil site in Lizhuang Town, Tancheng County, Tang Yonggang discussed with the local authorities how to protect the fossil group next, and explained to onlookers how to identify dinosaur types based on these footprint fossils.
The expedition found a theropod dinosaur footprint, about 40 centimeters long, which belongs to a carnivorous dinosaur in the early Cretaceous period and is about 4 meters long, depending on the size of the footprint.
In the eyes of ordinary onlookers, these dinosaur footprint fossils are some large or small stone pits, but in Tang Yonggang's mind, this is a lively "Jurassic Park" series of movie blockbusters: 100 million years ago, here was a cement swamp, a huge herbivorous dinosaur drank water and dragged the huge body slowly away, a group of small and fierce chilong quietly trailed and waited for the opportunity to attack.
More footprint fossils may be found
The Tancheng Cretaceous dinosaur footprint fossil group released this time is located in Lizhuang Town, in a pond formed after the local villagers abandoned the stone pond where the stone was mined more than 40 years ago. If it were not for the rock formation where the fossils of dinosaur footprints were exposed by the quarrying of the stone, these precious discoveries may have been buried underground for a long time.
"Every day I hit this side, and I don't see anything from pit to pit." Wang Shengye, 63, has planted grain in the wilderness by the pond. On the sandstone less than two meters away from the 4 long peanuts she cultivated, three footprints left by carnivorous dinosaurs are preserved. In the eyes of Wang Shengye and other villagers, these stone pits could not have been footprints left by some kind of animal. "The stone is so hard, why step out of a pit?" Someone told her that a long time ago these stones were soft mud, and the dinosaurs walked over and left footprints, and these soft muds that retained footprints slowly condensed, dried, and then filled with sediment, and finally slowly petrified into the fossil footprints of the dinosaurs in front of them.
Some people also asked whether since dinosaur footprint fossils can be found, there will be dinosaur bones or dinosaur egg fossils nearby. Tang Yonggang said that the formation conditions of footprint fossils and bone fossils are different, the former requires a consolidation process and then fills the deposition, and the latter needs to be immediately covered and buried, so in general, dinosaur footprint fossils and skeleton or egg fossils will not appear in the same place. He also speculates that more dinosaur footprints will be found if other unexposed rock formations are cleaned up.
Qilu Evening News Qilu one-point reporter Qiu Ming
Transferred from: Volkswagen Network
[Edit: Liu Xiaoming]