The picture shows Du Yanli, director of the Heyuan Dinosaur Museum, interviewed by the reporter of the "Along the Highway to See The Middle Circle (Guangdong)". Photo by Song Xiujie
【Along the highway to see China (Guangdong)】Guangdong Heyuan found 7 new "ammonite fossils" dating back 182 million years
Zhongxin Network Huizhou May 19 Title: Guangdong Heyuan newly discovered 182 million years ago "ammonite fossils"
China News Network reporter Song Xiujie
On May 19, the reporter followed the "along the highway to see China (Guangdong)" interview group into the Guangdong Heyuan Dinosaur Museum, and learned an exciting news, in January 2021, in Shuangjiang Town, Dongyuan County, Heyuan City, 15 meters away from the surface of Wanlu Lake, 7 pieces of "ammonite fossils" were found, which is another harvest after the discovery of "ammonite fossils" in December 1997. This discovery is of great scientific value to the archaeological research inference that the source area of the river was once an ocean.
Du Yanli, director of the Dinosaur Museum in Heyuan City, said that the "ammonite" is not a living animal but an extinct marine invertebrate, living from the Middle Ordovician to the late Cretaceous. It first appeared in the early Devonian Period of the Paleozoic Era (about 400 million years ago), flourished in the Mesozoic Era (about 225 million years ago), was widely distributed in the Triassic oceans around the world, and was extinct at the end of the Cretaceous Period (about 66 million years ago).
The picture shows the newly discovered 182 million-year-old "ammonite fossils" in Heyuan, Guangdong. Photo by Song Xiujie
The "ammonite" found in Heyuan is a corolla ammonite, which has been identified by experts from the Guangdong Institute of Archaeology and the Provincial Institute of Geology as an invertebrate living in the ocean during the Jurassic era 182 million years ago.
According to reports, the Heyuan Dinosaur Museum is located on the side of the Dongjiang River in Heyuan City and the side of the Mountain side of the Song Dynasty Guifeng Pagoda, covering an area of 3,000 square meters, with a construction area of 8,300 square meters and a total investment of 63 million yuan, which is not only the "Dinosaur Egg Museum of the Chinese Paleozoological Museum", but also a national museum.
More than 15,000 various dinosaur egg fossils that have won the Guinness Book of Records certificate, Huang's Heyuan dragon orthotype specimens and dinosaur footprint fossils found in Heyuan City are exhibited here, reflecting the unique dinosaur fossil resources of Heyuan City's "Trinity". The shocking "Nine Dragon Combination", three pterosaurs and activities take effect to simulate dinosaur models such as Tyrannosaurus rex and oviraptorosaur, making people suspected of breaking into Jurassic Park hundreds of millions of years ago.
Du Yanli said that when many excavated dinosaur bones were restored, the "Huang's Heyuan Dragon", which was embedded in red sandstone blocks and exposed to the shape of the skeleton, was once "lying" in the glass display cabinet of the Heyuan Museum. On May 1, 2018, under the guidance of experts from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the museum began to finely repair the relatively complete dinosaur skeleton fossils "lying" in the red sandstone block, and selected important parts to be stripped out of the red sandstone block, and the complete dinosaur bones stripped out were made into models, and the dinosaurs were reconstructed and assembled according to anatomy, so that the "Huang's Heyuan Dragon" preserved in the red sandstone could better display its three-dimensional state with a "standing" posture.
In the process of restoration, it is first necessary to chisel and separate the specimens of dinosaur bones from the surrounding rock, peel off the surrounding rocks of the skeleton fossils in various parts, so that the specimens can be better separated, and then coated with protective agents for reinforcement protection; for the defective parts of the incomplete bone fossils, the parts that are defective in the preserved skeleton fossils are repaired with plaster filling, and the missing parts in the secondary specimen after stripping are referred to to ensure the integrity of the bones in different positions, and finally the stripped dinosaur bones are equipped as a whole according to the standing, spawning, incubation and other postures displayed according to the needs. It took a year and a half before and after to assemble the "Huang's Heyuan Dragon" lying in the red sandstone layer into 3 individuals and stand up for a long time.
Du Yanli said that in September 2012, the "Huang's Heyuan Dragon" was listed as a national first-class key protected paleontological fossil, and the "Huang's Heyuan Dragon" dinosaur fossil, which had previously been identified as a national first-class cultural relic, was called a "double national treasure".
Du Yanli also said that the "Huang's Heyuan Dragon" was named after the surname of Huang Dong, the discoverer of the fossil and the former director of the Heyuan Dinosaur Museum. "Huang's Heyuan Dragon" belongs to the family Oviraptorosaurus, the genus name Heyuan refers to the origin of fossils, and the species name is given to Huang Dong, then director of the Heyuan Museum, who has made great contributions to the excavation and protection of Dinosaur Fossils in Heyuan.
It is understood that the skeleton of "Huang's Heyuan Dragon" excavated in Heyuan is not only a new type of oviraptorosaur found outside the Mongolian Gobi, enriching the paleogeographic distribution of oviraptorosaurs, but also providing more evidence for the evolution of dinosaurs to birds. (End)
Source: China News Network