When it comes to fossil paleontology, the first thing that most people think of is definitely a large and diverse dinosaur. Dinosaurs were once the hegemons of the earth, first appeared in the Middle Triassic, until the end of the Cretaceous period, extending the entire Mesozoic, flourishing in the Jurassic and Cretaceous, from 235 million to 65 million years ago, there were dinosaurs, dominating the earth's terrestrial ecosystem for more than 100 million years. Without the mass extinction of the Cretaceous, mammals might have survived forever.
Dinosaurs, as the overlords of an era, have a domineering name, coupled with a huge body, in the new generation to gain a large number of mammalian fans. Dinosaurs are actually a large class, which is a general term for the order Lizards and Ornithopods of the diplodocus suborder under the order Lizards. We are familiar with pterosaurs, plesiosaurs, etc., although they are called dragons, but they belong to the order of pterosaurs and finned dragons, so they do not belong to the category of dinosaurs, dinosaurs only refer to reptiles on land.
Fragment of Jurassic Park
In the last article on the inventory of paleontological fossil groups, netizens privately sent many dinosaur fossil groups. In fact, as a China known as the "hometown of dinosaurs", the dinosaur fossil group is of course worth introducing a drop alone ~ So, after the previous article was issued, Xiaobian began to brew the next dinosaur fossil group article. But when I picked up the pen, I found that the problem was not so simple! More than 20 provinces and cities in China have found dinosaur fossils, as of now, the named species of 174 species, is currently the world's largest number of dinosaur species in the country, Sichuan, Inner Mongolia, Liaoning production of fossils in particular, the largest dinosaur fossil group area of up to hundreds of thousands of square meters. Chinese dinosaur research has made many outstanding contributions to geological evolution, including the proof that birds evolved from dinosaurs, tyrannosaurs from Central Asia to the world, Andromeda eurasia and North America were once connected. Therefore, small to write this article feels a lot of pressure, if there are any scientific problems bothered to point out ~
The following is a brief list of dinosaur fossils that have been officially certified as the "hometown of Chinese dinosaurs", and there are also large and small dinosaur museums in various places. I don't know if your hometown has been cue, if you are interested, you can visit it in safe conditions
01 Zigong, Sichuan
The best dinosaur museum in the world
Zigong Dinosaur Museum
Collection of Zigong Dinosaur Museum
place
Sichuan Zigong Dashanpu
title
The biggest harvest in the history of dinosaur excavation research in the past 20 years, the world's best dinosaur museum, dinosaur cemetery
era
Middle Jurassic (135-210 million years)
scale
17,000 square meters, 100,000 fossil bones
Represents dinosaurs
Tianfu Emei Dragon, Li Shu Dragon, Taibai Huayang Dragon
Brief introduction
Zigong dinosaur fossil group is characterized by huge scale, complete categories, complete preservation and concentrated burial, which is a world-famous dinosaur fossil production area, widely favored by researchers at home and abroad, of which the Zigong Dinosaur Museum established is also one of the three major dinosaur museums in the world. During the Jurassic period, the Sichuan region was in an open lakeside environment, with a humid climate and abundant resources, which was extremely suitable for dinosaurs to inhabit and reproduce, and the sandy strata of better rivers were also very suitable for the burial of dinosaur bones, so a large number of sandstone layers containing dinosaur fossils were formed in the Zigong area.
other
Favorite friends can go to the official website for virtual browsing: http://www.zdm.cn/
02 Zhucheng, Shandong
Dragon City, China
Wanlongbi (Kugou Dinosaur Fossil Gallery)
Fossilized Cretaceous siltstone formations
Zhucheng Dinosaur Museum Dragon Cube
Collection of Zhucheng Dinosaur Museum
Restoration of the scene of theropod dinosaurs chasing sauropod dinosaurs (Image source: Zhao Chuang)
Beiling, Kugou Village, Lübiao Town, Zhucheng, Weifang, Shandong
The world's treasure trove of dinosaur fossils, China's dragon city, the world's largest and most concentrated dinosaur fossil group
Late Cretaceous (70 million years ago)
20,000 square meters, 30 places, the largest footprint group in a single area is 5,000 square meters, 11,000 footprints
Giant Shandong dragon, duck-billed dragon, Zhucheng Chinese horned dragon, giant Zhucheng tyrannosaur
Zhucheng dinosaur fossils are characterized by a wide area, variety and large volume, and a large number of undecided dinosaurs have been found, including rare dinosaurs such as Tyrannosaurus rex, duck-billed dragon, and horned dragon, and there are more than 5,000 square meters of dinosaur footprint fossil groups, which is an important site for studying the ecological habits of dinosaurs. Coupled with the fact that the time was at the end of the Cretaceous period, close to the time of the mass extinction of dinosaurs, it provided important information for the evolution of dinosaurs. 70 million years ago, the Zhucheng area was in the swampy area of rivers and lakes, and the climate was warm and humid, suitable for dinosaurs to flourish. However, with the subduction of the Pacific Plate to the east of North China, the geographical pattern of the Jiaolai Basin changed, the climate turned hot and dry, and the vegetation was sparse, resulting in the mass death of dinosaurs, thus forming geological phenomena such as "Wanlongbi".
Some of the information comes from the official website of Zhucheng Dinosaur National Geopark: http://www.cnkonglong.com/
03 Xixia, Henan
Cradle of dinosaurs
Xixia Dinosaur Relic Park
Collection of Xixia Dinosaur Relic Park
Xixia County, Nanyang City, Henan Province
The Ninth Wonder of the World, cradle of dinosaurs
Early Cretaceous-Late Cretaceous (130-0.9 billion years)
The reserve covers an area of 78,015 hectares, and 100,000-400,000 dinosaur egg fossils are buried
25 dinosaur egg fossils
In 1993, the first fossil group of tens of thousands of dinosaur eggs was found in Xixia County, Nanyang, Henan, and its number was rare in the world, before which the number of dinosaur egg fossils in the world was less than 500, and then the first Xixia Dinosaur Relic Park with dinosaur egg fossils as the main body was established. The phenomenon of large-scale dinosaur egg fossils has always been an important research problem, and some scholars have found a large number of fungal fossils inside dinosaur eggs through ESEM (environmental scanning electron microscopy), believing that fungal infections are the main reason for the large-scale accumulation of dinosaur eggs that cannot hatch, and even the direct cause of the demise of dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous period. In addition, due to the wide distribution range of dinosaur egg fossils in Henan, there is a large number of dinosaur egg fossils pirated phenomenon, the dinosaur egg fossils circulating in the market are mostly from Henan, although the government has taken measures can not be completely avoided, I hope that everyone from their own to protect geological relics, prohibit the purchase and sale of fossil resources protected by the state.
Xixia Relic Park Official Website: http://www.klyjy.cn/
Resources
GONG Yiming, XU Ran, HU Bin. Fungi in the stone: a possible killer of dinosaur extinction[J]. SCIENCE CHINA Earth Sciences, 2008, 038(004):439-444.
04 Rehe, Liaoning
The most alternative dinosaur
Liaoning Chaoyang Bird Fossil National Geopark
Restoration map of the Rehe biota in Liaoning Province
Fossil and restoration of Chinese dragon bird (fossil found melanin)
Fossil and restoration of Psittacosaurus (Psittacosaurus learned to camouflage)
Chaoyangyi County, Beipiao, Lingyuan and other places in Liaoning, China
One of the world's most important paleontological discoveries of the 20th century, the origin of birds
Early Cretaceous (130-120 million years)
Fossils are distributed in 10,000 square kilometers
Chinese Dragon Bird, Hu YaoLong, Millennium Chinese Bird Dragon, Little Raptor Dragon, Gorgeous Feather King Dragon, Rehe Dragon, Beipi Dragon, Parrot-billed Dragon, etc
The Liaoxi Rehe biota has contributed too much to the development of the paleontological community, proving that birds evolved from dinosaurs, including the earliest birds, mammals, and angiosperms. Teacher Xu Xing's "Dinosaurs Flying to the Blue Sky" has long been written into the fourth grade textbook of primary school, revealing the secret of dinosaur evolution for us. We can even imagine how excited and shocked the paleontologist was when he got that feathered dinosaur fossil! Dinosaurs never went extinct, they just chose to fly into the sky.
[1] Vinther J , Nicholls R , Lautenschlager S , et al. 3D Camouflage in an Ornithischian Dinosaur[J]. Current Biology Cb, 2016, 26(18):2456-2462.
[2] Zhang F , Kearns S L , Orr P J , et al. Fossilized melanosomes and the colour of Cretaceous dinosaurs and birds[J]. Nature, 2010, 463(feb.25):1075-1078.
05 Lufeng, Yunnan
The oldest dinosaur
Lufeng World Dinosaur Valley
Lufeng Dinosaur Valley Collection
Lufeng County, central Yunnan Province
The oldest dinosaur discovery site, the first dinosaur home
Jurassic
More than 140 dinosaur skeletons
Xu's Lufeng Dragon, Triassic Chinese Dragon, Lufeng Dianzhong Dragon
One of China's earliest dinosaur paleontologists discovered the oldest dinosaur, Lufenglong, 200 million years ago in 1939, which may have been the ancestor of most of the sauropod dinosaurs that followed. The Lufeng dinosaur fossil group is characterized by complete preservation, age and variety, and fills the gap of dinosaur fossils before the Jurassic in China. A major feature of Lufeng dinosaur fossils is that the heads of many dinosaur fossils are facing east, which has never been seen in the history of dinosaur excavations, and the reason for the formation may be the accumulation of rivers, which has the least resistance to the flow of water. As for the online rumors about the place where the dinosaurs died and faced the sun rising, the dinosaurs died of thirst on the way to the water source, etc., they need to be scientifically explored.
06 Erenhot, Inner Mongolia
Home to the world's largest "dragon bird"
Erenhot Dinosaur National Geopark
Dinosaur sculptures in the park
Dinosaur fossil excavation site
Inner Mongolia Xilin Gol League Erlianhot City
One of the world's top ten new discoveries in natural sciences and the earliest research site for the discovery of dinosaur fossils
Late Cretaceous
The National Geopark covers an area of 70 square kilometers
Ancient bird-like dragon, chicken-like dragon, eagle dragon, Jiang's Buck dragon, Xilin Gol Jiermo dragon, ankylosaurus, Yang's Inner Mongolian dragon, Mei palm erlian dragon, Erlian giant thief dragon and so on
Erenhot is one of the earliest regions in Asia to find dinosaur fossils, dinosaur fossils have a wide variety, of which Cretaceous dinosaur fossils represent the characteristics of the most advanced biota of global dinosaur activity, and the scientific research value is extremely high. Researcher Xu Xing of the Institute of Ancient Spine also found the largest bird-like dinosaur fossil in the world today in Erenhot - a 5-meter-tall, 8-meter-long, 1400-kilogram oviraptorosaur, which was named Erlian Megalopiosaurus, which is a special case of dinosaur evolution to birds.
07 Xinjiang Dzungar
Birthplace of Tyrannosaurus rex
Fossil origin of Wucai City in Xinjiang
Collection of Changji Dinosaur Museum in Xinjiang
Ancestor of Tyrannosaurus rex - multicolored crowned dragon (Source: National Geographic of China)
Niu's Asian Footprint and Heel Pad Asian Footprint and Tracer Ecological Restoration Map (Source: Zhao Chuang)
Xinjiang Junggar Basin, Turpan Basin
Tyrannosaurus rex moved from Central Asia to the world, the region with the most buried dinosaurs in the world
Late Jurassic-Cretaceous
More than 40 kinds of dinosaurs, the world's largest footprint remnants, covering an area of 80 square meters
Represents dinosaurs and pterosaurs
Dzungar Pterodactyl, Qitai Tianshan Dragon, Flame Mountain Dragon, Su Qiao Dragon, Star Tianchi Dragon, Jiang's Single-Ridged Dragon, Dong's Chinese Thief Dragon, Zhongjiama Liuxi Dragon, etc
Xinjiang is the main source of dinosaur fossils, and the weathered environment has allowed a large number of dinosaur fossils to be exposed to the surface and discovered. The main discovery of the Dzungar fossil group in Xinjiang is a large number of theropod dinosaurs, tyrannosaurs are the most successful evolutionary theropod dinosaurs, and the discovery of the ancestor of tyrannosaurs, multicolored crowned dragons, proved to the world that tyrannosaurs came to the world from China. The world's largest dinosaur footprint was also recently discovered in the Junggar Basin and named the Niu's Asian Footprint.
China National Geographic, No. 596, Dinosaurs of China
Similarly, Guangdong Nanxiong City, Guangdong Heyuan City, Jiangxi Ganzhou City, Zhejiang Dongyang City, Gansu Yongjing County and other places have a large number of dinosaur fossils production areas, and have been awarded the title of "China's Dinosaur Town", there are representative dinosaurs in the local area, and there are related dinosaur museums for everyone to visit and learn!
The evolution of dinosaurs was actually a long and difficult road, and the Permian-Triassic mass extinction reshuffled the natural world. In the late Permian period, the zygoidan organisms that developed higher amniotic eggs at that time were destroyed when they were about to become the hegemons of the world, and only a small number of small species survived, and they were the ancestors of later mammals. The lizard creatures that had been suppressed by the homophthalmie for hundreds of millions of years saw a great opportunity for development, they also had amniotic egg structures, and they developed rapidly, so that powerful dominant dragon creatures appeared in the lizards, including crocodiles and early ancestors of dinosaurs. At this time, the early dinosaurs were still weak, and they were not opponents of the Post crocodile at all, until there was a mass extinction at the end of the Triassic period, the oxygen content in the air decreased, it became dry, and a large number of crocodiles went extinct. At this time, the dinosaurs with air bag structure stood up, rushed to the top of the food chain under the banner of counterattack, and began the dinosaur era of more than 100 million years from the Jurassic. However, the weather is unpredictable, and it is difficult for dinosaurs to imagine that they will one day follow the old path of homophoretic creatures, at the end of the Cretaceous Period, or meteorites, or natural disasters, or diseases, resulting in the eventual demise of the whole family. The remnants of the previously surviving hygropods once again survived the mass extinction and evolved into later mammals, and then to us humans.
Some of the images originate from the Internet, please inform us if there is any infringement.
Editor: Zhang Yue
Proofreader: Tao Qin