When I applied for a master's degree, I made a choice from the general category of geology, thinking that I must not apply for an unpopular major, otherwise it would be a big problem to find a job after graduation. At that time, the public did not realize the historical mission of "green water and green mountains are golden mountains and silver mountains", which is the long-term survival and development of mankind, and everything was still based on resource development as the first priority, but I was glad to choose a very forward-looking major, ecological geology, which also benefited me a lot in my later job search. Unfortunately, it is a little early to be happy, and this major has a synonym, paleontology and stratigraphy [covering your face], going around, or turning back to the most unpopular major in geology. How cold is this? A classmate of mine, studying a direction called Moratus, it is said that what is the carbonate molar-like structure, I can't understand the extenuating circumstances, he studied for three years and actually can't understand, when he graduated to the interview, the employer was shocked, have lamented that geology actually has such a broad and profound sub-discipline.
Ecological geology or paleontological stratigraphy, into the regional adjustment project, are from scratch to start the small white, formatted and then re-downloaded input. Out of concern about the effect of my return to the furnace, my mentor Xiao Su also pulled out of the project team, one to check the quenching effect of his disciples, and the other to guide the elevation of the project results and do scientific research, after all, he studied under Academician Wang Hongjian, and his professional quality was still very high. The arrival of Xiao Su also brought good news to our gang, that is, a short-term improvement in food [teeth]. Because after he ate his first meal, he made a request that we dare not mention, Andrea Sue wanted to eat canned sardines. So, Lao Liu arranged for the driver to drive more than 200 kilometers directly, purchased a large number, and said goodbye to cucumbers, tomatoes, squeezed vegetables and white porridge days, not to mention how refreshing.
Xiao Su consulted with Lao Li and carried out a collective route of unified understanding of the old third department in the far north, so that in a windy and sunny morning, the project team of 3 cars and 12 people rushed to the Namugeng Commune. In inner Mongolia in mid-July, there is almost no green on the ground, coupled with the lack of rainwater, it is almost difficult to grow plants on the red soil layer, only sand lizards running all over the ground, which adds a little life to this wasteland. There's something nice about this ghost place, and everyone is talking about it along the way. Later, a shepherd took the lead in opening up the deadlock for us. He saw a large group of us in Wuyang Wuyang, learned that we were from the geological team, and immediately took out a broken egg from his pocket excitedly, yes, it was an egg, but not a dinosaur egg, he stepped on it when he drove the sheep past, and he thought it should be worth it and put it away. We asked him where he had found it, and he pointed to it, across the hill. Then there was the story of us hitting fossils day and night.
The names of those groups in the tertiary period of central Mongolia appear in our discussion almost every day. To this day, I can still clearly recite their names, Namugen, Khor well, Ashan tou, İr Dinmanha, Ulangochu, Tungur, Anda Dhara. A large number of mammal fossils were found in these red-green formations, and the mountain that the sheep pointed out to us is not an exaggeration to describe it as a mountain full of fields. Xiao Su's major discovery made his blood boil, while calling Lao Liu to report on this achievement, while busy deploying excavation work, I was thinking at that moment, it is estimated that the distance between Xiao Su's heart and the academician is only the species and name of these fossils. And I remember Yang Kui told me that this thing is called a keel, which is used in Chinese medicine to stop bleeding, and can be sold for 8 cents a pound. When the whole project team was excited about such scientific research results and economic value, only one person was relatively calm, that is, my master Lao Li. In addition to the fact that hitting the fossils would delay the overall progress of the district adjustment work, he thought that the new discoveries in Xiao Su's eyes were just what others were left to play. As it turns out, ginger, or old spicy. Later, after getting the identification report, I learned that these animals are all named species, and they are also more typical species in the Tertiary Period, dating back to the research findings of American scholars in the 50s, and now it seems that this is also a kind of intellectual and civilized plunder. The fossils we have found are nothing more than the contents of the lower strata of the surface that have been exposed again after the wind and rain, and the upper part has long been eaten dry and wiped away by the Yankees.
From the day this fossil was discovered, in the next nearly two months, our four groups, together with the logistics management of the project team, my sister Tao Le, my sister Zhu Yan, and two female comrades were conscripted into the army and began to serve. That period of time can really be described as early and greedy, with a full day's dry food and water, just dawn to start, the road will take more than two hours, to the work area, all men, according to the division of labor, first with a pickaxe, then with a shovel, after using a spatula with a knife, from the periphery close to the fossil main burial ground, a little cleanup, a little push, can not be fast, can not be fierce, fast and fierce easy to destroy fossils, can not be slow, slow will affect the overall excavation time, clean out the complete fossil must be timely technical processing, placed for a long time, will become crisp , there is no way to carry it. When a large area of fossil contours are cleaned out by shovels and pickaxes, it is necessary to use a small knife and shovel to clean the fine bones, and then use a soft brush to brush off the surface of the soil, and then brush a layer of varnish on the surface to prevent further weathering and fragmentation of fossils. Attach a working photo and name it Fossil Life [Cover Your Face].
Fossil life
In fact, time consumption is still secondary, and what I can't stand the most is the boredom brought about by this mechanical, repetitive, endless work. So I found a pastime game, playing sand lizards. This gecko-sized species is almost proliferating, crawling around right under our noses. Brownish-yellow body, white belly, jaw and red spots. I used to go out in yichang, and there was also a common lizard called the Yibin dragon lizard, which looked much more beautiful than this. I used the small stones I picked up at random to throw these ugly reptiles, which is strange to say, after hitting, I immediately turned my feet to the sky, motionless, I don't know if I am really dead or pretending to be dead, anyway, I am not less ho ho ho them. At that time, I was too young to understand that everything in heaven and earth had a spiritual nature, and that killing and killing people was to be punished, and soon after, it was also a relatively spiritual thing in my career, which made me completely change my mind and understand the fear of these beings.
These complete fossils are strange, one of which resembles a large cauldron with the lines of tortoiseshell on it, and is a large turtle-like creature. I also dug up a huge skull with a long doorway and horns on its head, which I thought was a legendary dragon, but later learned that this was called a swollen-boned bighorn deer. Others are learned after reading the appraisal report. The more famous three-toed horses of the order Strange-hoofed, tapir, giant rhinoceros, thunder beast, thunder beast, giant pig of the order even-hoofed order, pika rabbit of rodent order, hyena family of carnivorous order, etc., too many are not clearly remembered. On the day of the fossil beating, almost every day had to rush back to the station at night, and the team members almost always fell asleep as soon as they got on the car, because they were really tired. But there is also an interesting thing, that is, we picked up a lot of hedgehogs, yes, it was picked, because when the headlights hit them, the hedgehogs would not move, and a few of us young, especially my sister, especially liked this small animal, so we used the straw hat hood to come back and raise two of them, but strangely, one night, we used the washbasin to hold the hedgehog, and there were stones pressed on it, and the next morning, the washbasin stones were intact, and the hedgehogs actually disappeared and flew, could it really be the earth fairy? Such a hard work, on the one hand, is for Xiao Su's grand ambition to dominate, on the other hand, it is also for my graduation defense, and I have been practicing Latin pronunciation for more than two months. Although there was no special issue of Nature or Science, Xiao Su was promoted from associate professor to professor, and these fossils also brought good news to the small county town of Siziwangqi, and the government later invested in the construction of a giant rhino fossil museum.
Old Li's fears still happened, and hitting the fossils took up too much investigation time, resulting in a serious delay in filling in the map. I have heard him talk to Lao Liu on the phone several times, yelling at his throat, expressing dissatisfaction, and repeatedly stressing that he cannot use scientific research ideas to do production. Later, old Liu was forced by the pressure of the construction period, or stopped the work of beating fossils, and transported more than twenty boxes of special cars that had been cleaned out back to Beijing, along with Xiao Su. Since then, Xiao Su has never returned to the project team, and the canned sardines have been stopped like the fossil work, and the only person who remains with him is my indisputable disciple.
The story of the fossil will end first, and the next time we talk about the animals seen in the wild, it will be as evocative [cute]. Attached are two photographs of the fossils.
