Humans are full of interest in dinosaurs. From scientists to children, from academic research to cartoons and enlightenment albums, dinosaurs, which were once "overlords of the earth" that were extinct 65 million years ago, have brought unlimited scientific exploration and reverie space to human beings around the world.
The earliest dinosaur fossil discovered by humans was the distal femur of Megalodon found in southern England in 1766. As of June 2018, more than 2,200 sites around the world have unearthed dinosaur fossils including bones, footprints, and dinosaur eggs. Among the more than 1,000 species of dinosaurs named, 290 species of dinosaurs are named in China, ranking first in the world.
Inner Mongolia occupies an important position in the history of dinosaur research. Many regions have left a large number of dinosaur fossils and remains, burying countless secrets from ancient times. Dinosaurs silently tell humans: I have been here.
Dinosaurs appeared in Inner Mongolia 200 million years ago
The vast land of Inner Mongolia, before the birth of the grassland civilization, experienced a long and tortuous development process of ancient creatures.
More than 240 million years ago, in the Mesozoic Era, dinosaurs appeared. 200 million years ago, in the early Jurassic Period, dinosaurs came to Inner Mongolia and gradually dominated. Although no fossils of them have been found at that time, the footprints they stepped on are still preserved in the Jurassic strata of Bayannur.
The Mesozoic era is roughly divided into the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous. During the Cretaceous period, many large lakes appeared in Inner Mongolia, with a humid climate, lush vegetation, and rapid development of reptiles. This provided a superior living environment for dinosaurs and also provided conditions for the preservation of dinosaur fossils. The dominant dinosaurs are numerous and diverse, and their footprints spread throughout most of Inner Mongolia, forming a diverse and vibrant dinosaur kingdom.
Dinosaur egg fossils on display at the Inner Mongolia Museum
Inner Mongolia is vast, mesozoic continental strata are all over the region, a large number of dinosaur fossils have been unearthed in various places, most of which come from Cretaceous strata, mainly concentrated in The Erlian Salt Pond in Xilin Gol, Bayan Mandahu in Bayannaoer, Chabu Area in Ordos, Dashuigou in Alxa and Ningcheng in Tukemu and Chifeng.
From the beginning of the 1890s to the present, scientists from many countries around the world and China have carried out many large-scale investigations and excavations in Inner Mongolia, and have successively discovered more than 30 kinds of dinosaur fossils such as Jiermo dragon, Australopithecus, Buckosaurus, bird-like dragon and Erlian giant robber dragon, and unearthed a large number of complete dinosaur skeleton fossils.
Erenhot: One of the first places in Asia where dinosaurs were discovered
Erenhot, known as the "land of dinosaurs", is one of the earliest areas in Asia where dinosaur fossils and dinosaur egg fossils have been found, and is the world's largest burial place for Cretaceous dinosaur fossils, with a national geopark of 134 square kilometers.
Dinosaur fossils are buried in the National Geopark of Erenhot City, Inner Mongolia
The Upper Cretaceous strata of the Erlian Basin are relatively developed and are rich in dinosaur fossils and other reptile fossils. In 1893, the famous Russian geologist Obruchev came to the Erlian Salt Pond and found dinosaur fossils for the first time. From 1922 to 1931, the Central Asian Expedition established by the Museum of Natural History in New York conducted 10 years of scientific expeditions in Central Asia, and they accidentally found dinosaur fossils and some egg fossil fragments in the Late Cretaceous strata of the Erlian region for the first time. At that time, they did not realize that the egg fossil fragments were dinosaur eggs, and later, when the expedition team found complete egg fossils in the Flame Cliffs in Outer Mongolia, they learned that the egg fossil fragments found in Erlian were dinosaur eggs.
The American Central Asian expedition proved for the first time that dinosaurs were oviparous animals, and found a variety of dinosaur fossils, which made paleontologists around the world fascinated by Erlian and opened the curtain on the study of dinosaur fauna in Inner Mongolia. In the past hundred years, paleontologists from many countries have conducted scientific investigations in succession, found a large number of dinosaur fossils, and achieved important research results. The Erlian area became the first source of Dinosaur Fossils in China to be recorded in the annals of international paleontological history.
The dinosaur fossil biota of the Erlian Basin is a representative of the Late Cretaceous dinosaur biota, and the dinosaur fossils are diverse, widely distributed and well-preserved, reflecting the main characteristics of the Late Cretaceous dinosaur biota. From 1893 to the present, more than ten genera of dinosaur fossils have been discovered, mainly sauropods, theropods, ornithopods and so on. Most of the dinosaur fossils found are plant-eating species, including sauropods, ornithischians and sickle dragons, which mainly represent paleo-like ornithischia, chicken-like dragons, Aleosaurus, eagle dragons, and Jiang's Buckosaurus.
In 2005, Chinese dinosaur expert Xu Xing discovered the world's largest oviraptorosaur dinosaur excavated on the east bank of the Erlian Salt Pond, Erlian MegaTosaurus, which was nearly 8 meters long and 5.5 meters high, making great contributions to the study of the origin of birds in the Chinese paleontological community. The discovery of the Erlian Giant Thief was selected by Time magazine as one of the "Top Ten Scientific Discoveries" in 2007. In 2008, he received the Guinness World Records Certificate.
Bayannur: Late Cretaceous dinosaur fossil origin
Giant-nosed horned dragon on display at the Inner Mongolia Museum
In the Bayanmandahu area of Urat Houqi in Bayannaoer City, there are extremely rich dinosaur fossils buried under the vast eroded red layer and clastic rock, which is an important late Cretaceous dinosaur fossil production area in China.
Dinosaur research in the region began with the collection of paleontological fossils by the China-Sweden Northwest Expedition in the 1920s. Up to now, more than ten species of dinosaur fossils have been found in the Cretaceous strata of Bayanandahu region. They belong to the theropods of the sauropods, the family Pythosaurus, the ornithischia, as well as the ankylosaurs, protoceras, and duck-billed dragons of the order Ophiostidae, which basically represent the main dinosaur types of the Late Cretaceous in the region.
Some dinosaur species with endemic characteristics have also been found here. In October 2012, engineer Hao Jianqiang of the Longhao Institute of Geology and Paleontology in Inner Mongolia and engineer Dai Ruiming of the Land and Resources Bureau of Bayannaoer City found a complete dinosaur fossil in the Chulumiao area of Houqi, Wulat. In June 2013, the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Longhao Institute of Geology and Paleontology and the Bayannaoer Municipal Bureau of Land and Resources formed a tripartite joint expedition to excavate the dinosaur skeleton, excavating more than 300 dinosaur fossil bones and confirming that it belonged to an individual. The fossil weighs more than 1,000 kilograms and represents the bones of various parts of the dinosaur's body, and its integrity is as high as more than 95%.
Perfect Bayannur Dragon
After comparison and research, experts believe that this dinosaur belongs to the new type of iguanodon in the transition from iguanodon to platylos, and named it the perfect Bayannur dragon. It is speculated that this dinosaur lived in the Late Early Cretaceous, about 120 million years ago. The discovery of the perfect Bayannurosaurus provides an important window for studying the early evolution of Iguanodon and the global diffusion distribution. The entire skeleton shows the transitional morphology of the evolution of iguanosaurus to duck-billed dragons.
The only evidence of dinosaur activity in the Early Jurassic of Inner Mongolia appears in the Middle Banner of Urart. In 2006, the Inner Mongolia Geological Environment Monitoring Institute found a fossil point of dinosaur footprints 10 kilometers west of the town of Hailiutu in Wulat Zhongqi. Li Jianjun, an expert in dinosaur footprint research, and the School of Earth and Space Sciences of Peking University jointly conducted a systematic study of these footprints, and identified a total of 119 fossil vertebrate footprints, most of which are dinosaur footprints. By comparison, it was found that the footprint combination of the Early Jurassic was very similar to that of the Podole region near Opatw, Poland, so it is recommended that the footprints of the Urat Flag Current Map and the chronology of the footprint-bearing strata be classified as early Jurassic.
Ordos: Footprints left by dinosaurs
Dinosaur sculptures in the territory of the Otok Banner
Ordos Basin is a large basin of Late Triassic to Early Cretaceous development in The Ordos Basin is famous all over the world for preserving a large number of dinosaur footprint fossils in the strata, and it is also believed that the Ordos region was a paradise for dinosaur life in the Mesozoic Era, especially in the Cretaceous period.
Dinosaur footprint fossils are footprints left by dinosaurs in the case of moderate surface humidity, viscosity, and particle size, and in later geological processes, the sediment that preserves the footprints become rocks, and the footprints on them form footprint fossils. Even where there are no physical dinosaur fossils, dinosaur footprints truly record the ecology and habits of dinosaurs when they lived.
Thousands of dinosaur footprints have been found in Inner Mongolia, and a total of 9 species of dinosaur footprints have been identified, including 6 species in 5 genera of Otok Banner and 3 species in 3 genera of Urat Zhongqi. In addition, bird footprints of 1 genus and 1 species were found in Otok Banner.
Dinosaur footprints in the Museum of Wild Geological Relics of the Otok Flag
Fossil dinosaur footprints in Otok Banner were first discovered in 1979 and are preserved in large areas of exposed limnal sedimentary rocks of the early Cretaceous period in the Chabu region. Dinosaur footprint fossils are rich in variety, large number, containing fossil layers, wide distribution range, has become a world-renowned footprint fossil production area. At present, more than 1500 dinosaur footprints and more than 100 bird footprint fossils have been identified in the Lower Cretaceous of the Otok chab region, and through systematic research, the theropod dinosaur footprints such as the Rockrichab footprints, the Asian footprints, the stilt-like footprints, the sauropods' Birddrasa footprints and the Chab Tatar bird footprints have been identified.
Based on the rocky nature of the preserved footprints and comparing similar footprint combinations in other parts of the world, scientists infer that the Chabu region was a seasonally arid lake during the Early Cretaceous period. At certain times of the year, dinosaurs and other animals come here to drink water, so they leave a lot of footprints on the lakeshore.
Alxa: Dinosaur fossils are abundant
Since 1975, the Alxa Zuoqi Dinosaur Fossil Nature Reserve has been excavated many times from theropods, parrot-billed dragons, protohornosaurs and duck-billed dragons.
Alxa Late Cretaceous protocephalosaurus specimen
Alxa Zuoqi Dinosaur Fossil Nature Reserve is divided into Wuliji Division and Hanwula Division. Among them, the Uliji Dinosaur Fossil Reserve, located on the border between China and Mongolia, the Cretaceous dinosaur biota in this area is divided into early and late two stages of biota: the early Cretaceous dinosaur biota is called the parrot-billed dinosaur biota, which is small and widely distributed; the Late Cretaceous dinosaur biota is called the Protoceraceosaurus biota, which is the most important dinosaur biota in the region.
Dinosaur fossils in the Alxa ZuoqiHan Ula Dinosaur Fossil Reserve are all produced in the Cretaceous strata. The Lower Cretaceous system mainly produced some carnivorous dinosaurs and iguanodons of the Order Breech suborder; the Upper Cretaceous mainly distributed ankylosaurs and duck-billed dragons; fossils in this area are rich in fossil types, densely distributed and well preserved.
The paleontological fossils of alxa league are of great significance for the study of paleontology, paleogeography, paleoclimate, paleoecology, geological evolution and environmental change in the region.
Chifeng: Ningcheng Pterodactyl and Ancient Flying Beast
More than 200 million years ago, dinosaur relatives, pterosaurs, became the first vertebrates on Earth to conquer the blue sky and soar freely in the air. They arose at about the same time as dinosaurs known as mesozoic land overlords at the end of the Late Triassic. They lived on Earth for nearly 160 million years, and finally disappeared at the end of the Cretaceous Period 65 million years ago, along with other reptiles of the same era, such as terrestrial dinosaurs, aquatic dragons, and plesiosaurs.
The Inner Mongolia Museum of Natural History exhibits fossils of Ningcheng Rehe Pterodactyl
Pterosaur fossils have been found in the Middle Jurassic and Early Cretaceous strata of Ningcheng, Inner Mongolia, as well as the Early Cretaceous of Ordos, proving that pterosaurs survived in Inner Mongolia for at least 45 million years during the period from the Middle Jurassic to the Early Cretaceous.
The Mesozoic strata in Ningcheng are very developed and contain extremely rich and exquisite fossils of paleontology. The fossil remains of paleontology in Ningcheng County are mainly distributed in ten locations, including Daohugou, mainly including two types: the Yanliao biota of the middle Jurassic period and the Rehe biota of the early Cretaceous Period.
Fossils of pterosaurs exhibited at the Inner Mongolia Museum of Natural History
The earliest frog-billed pterosaurs found in China are Ningcheng Rehe pterosaurs found in the Jurassic strata of Ningcheng In Chifeng City, Inner Mongolia, and are also well-preserved pterosaurs with soft tissues (wing membranes and hairy skin derivatives) around the world. In recent years, a large number of vertebrate fossils have been found in the Late Jurassic Yanliao biota, which are mainly distributed in western Liaoning and adjacent southeastern Inner Mongolia and northern Hebei. Pterosaurs have a large number of species and numbers in the Yanliao biota and occupy an important position.
Restoration of the Ancient Flying Beast
Ancient flying mammals lived 160 million years ago, the earliest flying mammal ever discovered, and the only flying mammal of its own generation to date with dinosaurs. Prior to this, the earliest flying mammals found in the world were bats from 51 million years ago. In 2006, Chinese paleontologists found a mammal fossil with wing membrane in Ningcheng. Since this mammal had never been discovered before, paleontologists had to create a new category specifically for it in the mammalian family tree, the order Xiang," and named it "Ancient Xiang Beast." Its discovery advanced the earliest flight of mammals by 110 million years.
(Inner Mongolia Daily News Rong Media Reporter Li Zhuo (sorting) Video: Li Zhuo)