Hezheng, Gansu, China, July 7 (Reporter Sun Zifa) 26.5 million years ago, a new species of giant rhinoceros, "Linxia Giant Rhinoceros", held a naming and unveiling ceremony in the Hezheng area of Gansu, where its fossils were found. Hou Sukuan, an associate researcher at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Institute of Paleovertebrates of the Chinese Academy of Sciences), made a report on the discovery and study of hezheng fossils at the ceremony, including the giant rhinoceros fauna, and the fossils in Gansu Hezheng region have four major fauna, and created six world largests such as "the world's unique Hezheng sheep fossil".
There are more than 30,000 fossil specimens
Hou Sukuan said that Hezheng County, Guanghe County and Dongxiang County in Gansu Province are the areas with the most mammal fossils in Linxia Basin, and there are also many fossil sites in Linxia City, Linxia County and Jishishan County.
The Linxia Basin, where the Hezheng region is located, is located at the intersection of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and the Loess Plateau, and is a fault basin on the northeast edge of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, developing and exposing continuous late Cenozoic continental deposits from the Oligocene Red Layer to the Holocene Loess for about 30 million years, which are rich in mammal fossils.
She revealed that so far, more than 30,000 fossil specimens have been found and collected at more than 100 fossil sites in the Hezheng area, which is the most abundant area for mammal fossils in China and even in the entire Eurasian continent. Fossil material includes a large number of skulls, and there are also intact skeletons found, and the number of limb bones is more abundant. These multi-category fossils provide solid evidence for studying their taxonomic location, ontogenesis, morphological variation, phylogenetics, geological epochs, paleogeography, paleoclimate, and paleoecology.
The abundance, variety and well-preserved number of paleontological fossils in the Hezheng area are of great significance to the construction of the evolutionary sequence of late Cenozoic mammals in Asia. Mammals are very sensitive to changes in the environment, the Late Cenozoic is a period of rapid uplift on the Tibetan Plateau, and the four main mammal groups in the Hezheng region represent a significant change in the appearance of the fauna under the rapid change of tectonic background.
It has four major fauna
Hou Sukuan said that the paleontological fossils in the Hezheng area record the four main stages of biological evolution in the region since the Paleogene: the Late Oligocene (26.5 million years ago) giant rhinoceros fauna, the Miocene (15 million to 12 million years ago) shovel-toothed elephant fauna, the Late Miocene (11.6 million to 5.3 million years ago) three-toed horse fauna, and the Early Pleistocene (2.5 million to 2 million years ago) real horse fauna.
The giant rhino fauna is composed of a series of exotic creatures, of which rhinoceros is absolutely dominant, typically representing the largest terrestrial mammal in geological history. The hunting animals of this fauna are still quite primitive, and only a small number of carnivorous toothed animals represented by megalodons exist. Its members also include the rodent Altaicha rat, the heteroceropter of the odd-ungulates, and the giant-jawed paralynx of the even-ungulates.
Hezheng Paleozoological Fossil Museum Treasure "Hezheng Sheep" fossil. Photo by Sun Zifa, a reporter from China News Service
The shovel-toothed elephant fauna lived in more lush forests and richer water bodies, and there was no longer any component of the giant rhinoceros fauna in this fauna. Laterally, the macular elephant has been found in many locations on the northern side of the Tibetan Plateau, while such animals have been absent from the Indo-Pakistani subcontinent on the southern side of the Tibetan Plateau during the same period, reflecting that the Tibetan Plateau has edminated to a height sufficient to hinder animal communication in the Miocene.
More broadly, maculate elephant fauna in the Hezheng region also recorded the spread of angels between North America and Eurasia. The event occurred during a cold period about 20 million years ago, when falling sea levels connected the Bering Strait as a land bridge, allowing Angela to reach Europe from North America and finally to Asia. The era of angel horses found in the Hezheng region is slightly later than the earliest records in Eurasia, in fact, the angel horses found throughout Asia are later than in Europe, and the earliest record is the Jiangsu Sihong fauna in the late Miocene, dating back to about 18 million years.
The main life period of the three-toed horse fauna is a hot semi-arid savanna environment, with seasonal variations strengthening. The three-toed horse fauna is named after the most representative animal in this fauna, the three-toed horse, which represents the animal group that has changed from ancient to modern mammals, and is also a group of animals that is rich in species and individual numbers. 12 million years ago, the first three-toed horses crossed the Bering land bridge from North America to Asia, and then rapidly spread to Europe and northern Africa, and the ensuing highly adaptable radiation was an important event in Eurasia.
The Dongxiang three-toed horse found in the Linxia Basin is the earliest three-toed horse in Eurasia. The three-toed horse fauna in Hezheng area is most represented by Yangjiashan and Birch Forest, and the large number of mammal fossils produced is the best batch of materials for in-depth research of the three-toed horse fauna, and has an irreplaceable position in the world.
The Zhenma fauna is the fauna with the richest species, the most complete fossil preservation and the clearest sequence relationship found in the loess soil of the Hezheng region. The composition of the Early Pleistocene true horse fauna in the Hezheng region is very special, different from most of the early Pleistocene mammal groups that have been found, and very different from the living mammal group, but it is highly similar in taxonomy and differentiation to the modern mammal group in the Everest region. 12 families and 8 genera in the Early Pleistocene mammal population in the Hezheng region are still seen in the modern Everest region, which is also consistent with the ecological characteristics reflected by the different species in the fauna.
Create the best of the six
Hou Sukuan pointed out that the Hezheng region is the largest post-Cenozoic mammal fossil production area in Eurasia, and the fossils produced here have so far created six of the world's largest: the world's unique Hezheng sheep fossil, the world's richest shovel-toothed elephant fossil, the world's richest three-toed horse fauna fossil, the world's earliest Quaternary woolly rhinoceros fossil, the world's largest real horse fossil Ezema, and the world's largest hyena fossil giant hyena.
Exterior view of the main exhibition hall of the Hezheng Paleozoological Fossil Museum. Photo by Sun Zifa, a reporter from China News Service
——The world's unique fossil of Hezheng sheep. Discovered and named in 2000, hezheng sheep is one of the most representative animals in the three-toed horse fauna in the Hezheng area, and is also a late Miocene bovine endemic to northern China. Hezheng sheep are medium in size, and the horned heart and skull characteristics have certain similarities with the living musk ox, so they have been classified as musk oxen, but the latest research shows that the relatives of the hezheng sheep and the living musk ox are far away, and they have a relatively close relationship with the Umi beast and the near-spin horned sheep, and belong to the Umi beast.
- The world's richest fossil of a shovel-toothed elephant. The shovel-toothed elephant adapts to life at the water's edge, cutting and scooping up plants in shallow water with its shovel teeth, and then relying on its long nose to help push food into its mouth. China is the country with the richest shovel-toothed elephant fossils, and the Hezheng region is one of the famous spatula fossils in China. In terms of the number of excavations, the fossil shovel-toothed elephant in the Hezheng area ranks first in the country and is second to none in the world. About 60 skulls and jaws of the relatively complete shovel-toothed elephants found in the Hezheng region are higher than the fossils of any shovel-toothed elephant group in the world.
- The world's richest fossil of a three-toed horse fauna. The three-toed horse fauna includes more than 100 large animals, close in nature to the fauna that now inhabit the African savannah. The fossils of the three-toed horse fauna found in the Hezheng area are most abundant in the original skunk, saber-toothed tiger, rear cat, hyena, three-toed horse, large-lipped rhinoceros, hornless rhinoceros, plate-toothed rhinoceros, bow-jawed pig, giraffe, Hezheng sheep and antelope. According to expert calculations, no less than 6,000 skull specimens have been found in the three-toed horse fauna in the Hezheng area, and there are not a few complete limb bones, which not only exceed Shanxi and Shaanxi in quantity and quality, but also exceed the two most famous fossil sites in Greece in Europe.
- The world's earliest Quaternary woolly rhinoceros fossil. The woolly rhinoceros is one of the most famous ice age animals that have extinct and one of the most successful ice age animals. The rhinoceros originated on the high-altitude Tibetan Plateau and then migrated out of the Tibetan Plateau to the high latitudes of Siberia in the north. A complete rhinoceros skull and its mandible were found in the Hezheng area, with a geological age of 2.5 million years. This is the earliest known Quaternary fossil of the woolly rhinoceros in the world, which is of great significance for understanding the early evolution of the woolly rhinoceros.
- The world's largest fossil of a real horse, the Ezekiel horse. A new fossil of a real horse found in the Pleistocene early loess layer 2.5 million years ago in the Linxia Basin, the Ezekiel is the largest known real horse in the world, with a skull length of 0.73 meters and the longest horse face in the world. The head of this horse is the largest of all horses. So far, Esther has only been found in the Hezheng area.
- The world's largest fossil hyena giant hyena. Hyenas are typical of ferocious carnivorous fauna in the three-toed horse fauna. Giant hyenas are the largest hyenas in the world. The head and shape of the giant hyena, although more similar to that of dogs or wolves, do not belong to the canine family, but have been differentiated from the main trunk of the evolution of civet cats since the Miocene. Most giant hyenas weigh about 210-240 kilograms, and the largest fossil skull of a giant hyena has been found in the Hezheng area, and according to estimates, the giant hyena weighs 380 kilograms.
Declaration of a Global Geopark
Hou Sukuan introduced that the Hezheng Paleontological Fossil Museum collects, restores and protects more than 30,000 ancient animal fossils, and concentrates on the exhibition of "four major fauna" and "six of the world's best" ancient animal fossil specimens. The museum has been named as the national youth science education base, the Institute of Ancient Spine of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the political scientific research base, etc., and the reality is free to open the policy, open to the public all year round, and there is no closing day.
As a representative source of fossils of the three-toed horse fauna in Hezheng Area, the birch forest site has been specially built by the local government to better protect the site and build a birch forest ancient animal fossil burial site museum.
In August 2009, in order to better protect and publicize paleontological fossils, the Hezheng County government jointly declared the Hezheng Paleontological Fossils National Geopark in conjunction with the distribution area of paleontological fossils in the area, which was officially approved in January 2013.
Since 2019, Linxia Hui Autonomous Prefecture of Gansu Province has integrated the geological relics resources under its jurisdiction, started the declaration and construction of the Global Geopark, and important paleontological fossil sites in Hezheng and neighboring areas have been included in the scope of Linxia Global Geopark.
She said that since the 1980s, many scientific research institutions and universities such as the Institute of Paleovertebrates of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou University, Gansu Provincial Museum, Peking University, Gansu Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, as well as scholars from the United States, Japan, Switzerland, South Korea and other countries have come to Hezheng for many times to investigate and conduct stratigraphic paleontology research, and have achieved a series of results. Up to now, more than 1,000 Chinese and English literature and monographs related to Hezheng paleontological fossils have been published, laying a solid scientific research foundation for the local declaration and construction of global geoparks. (End)
Source: China News Network