Source: Chengdu Business Daily
Technicians measure the size of dinosaur fossil bones on site
On the afternoon of October 18, a construction site in Longchang City, Sichuan Province, found suspected paleontological fossils during the process of quarrying. In this regard, some experts have preliminarily judged that it is a sauropod dinosaur fossil. On October 25, the Information Office of the Longchang Municipal Government confirmed that this is a relatively well-preserved fossil of a small-medium sauropod dinosaur, and it is the first complete dinosaur fossil found in Longchang City.
Workers found intact dinosaur fossils when cutting stones
According to the report, on October 18, at the construction site of the second section of xiangyang road in Longchang City, when cutting the stone, some workers found that the stone base plate contained fossils suspected of ancient organisms. After receiving the report, the Neijiang Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government, the Longchang Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government attached great importance to it, and resolutely adopted a series of emergency protection measures to enable the fossils at the site to be better protected.
From October 23 to 24, the Office of the National Paleontological Fossil Expert Committee and the Department of Natural Resources of Sichuan Province organized experts from the Geological Museum of China, the Henan Natural Museum, the Chongqing Geological Survey Institute, the Zigong Dinosaur Museum, the Geological Museum of Jilin University, the Institute of Paleontology of Shenyang Normal University, the Sichuan Provincial Bureau of Geology and Mineral Exploration and Development, and the Sichuan Institute of Land Space Ecological Restoration and Geological Disaster Prevention and Control to investigate and evaluate the site. It has been confirmed that this is a relatively well-preserved small-medium sauropod dinosaur fossil, and it is the first complete dinosaur fossil found in Longchang City.
or a new member of the sauropod class
Useful for the study of dinosaurs during the Jurassic period
It is reported that the fossil is produced in the Xiangyang Community 5 Community of Guhu Street, Longchang City, preserved in the late Jurassic early Late Jurassic Shangshaxi Temple Formation in the lower part of the huge thick layer of fine-grained quartz sandstone, in a spiral shape, estimated to be about 10 meters in length, part of the cervical vertebrae, tail vertebrae and part of the hind limb bones have been removed with the stone, there are still part of the cervical vertebrae, dorsal vertebrae, shoulder straps, forelimbs, waist belts, hind limb bones and tail vertebral impressions are still preserved at the construction site.
According to the experts of the evaluation team, although the dinosaur is not large, the structure of the vertebral air cavity is fully developed, the cervical vertebrae are short, the tail vertebrae are short and thick, and there is a big difference between the Mamenxi dragons common in the late Jurassic of the Sichuan Basin, and may belong to the new members of the sauropods that are still relatively rare in China. Its discovery has high scientific research value for the study of phylogenetic evolution, biodiversity, paleogeographic pattern, paleoenvironmental changes of dinosaurs during the Jurassic period, and is worthy of good protection and research.
At present, the relevant departments of Longchang City have been on duty for 24 hours at the dinosaur fossil discovery site, and the dinosaur fossils that have been excavated have been stored and protected in a centralized and unified manner. In the next step, Longchang City will carry out the excavation of dinosaur fossils and other related work in accordance with the procedures in accordance with the regulations on the protection of paleontological fossils and the implementation measures of the regulations on the protection of paleontological fossils.
Chengdu Business Daily - Red Star News reporter Yao Yongzhong