China is one of the most abundant areas in the world for ancient vertebrate fossils, and Lushi in Sanmenxia is a county with more ancient vertebrate fossils.
Since 1934, when the French biologist De Rijin came to Lu's scientific research work, Lu's has been a place of concern for Chinese and foreign paleontologists.
In 1956, after the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences received the fossil specimens of paleonttozoa sent by the Lu Cultural Center, Director Zhou Mingzhen led more than 40 experts to Lu in 1957 to conduct a census of the Geological Tertiary Period, and excavated in Wangjiapo (then called Mengjiapo) for more than 3 months, excavating a large number of fossils.
Since then, Lu's fossils have become famous all over the world. From 1984 to 1985, during the census of cultural relics in Lushi County, as many as 40 animal fossils were identified. The more famous ones are Sanmenling Fossil Area, Tielugou Fossil Area, Liujialing Fossil Area, Wangjiapo Fossil Area, Dongping Fossil Area and so on in Lushi County.
In 1957, the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in the scientific excavation of Wangjiapo, the harvest was huge: more than 30 kinds of mammal fossils were found, such as Eocene saber-toothed tiger, Lu amphibian rhinoceros, Lu's Qinling rat, Lu's rabbit and other animal fossils, and also found a biologically unseen fossil of a Middle Animal, that is, "Luohe Zhonghu".
The excavated fossil monkey skull is the most valuable, because in the excavation of Lu's, experts named it "Lu's Monkey", which is more than 40 million years old. It is the oldest primordial primate specimen found in China, a precious physical specimen for the study of human evolution, and has been called one of the most important harvests of late Eocene mammal research since the founding of the People's Republic of China.
In the winter of 1979, two experts, Tong Yongsheng and Wang Jingwen, came to Lu's place to investigate, and accidentally found a 60 cm long and 30 cm high fossil Utah beast skull (also called hexagonal beast because of its six horns) in Xuejiagou, Shahe Township, hence the name because it was first found in Utah, USA. But Lu's fossils are larger, more completely preserved, and very precious than those in the United States.
In 1981, the fossil was exhibited in Japan along with Chinese dinosaur fossils, causing a sensation in the local area. In the red layer of the Wulichuan and Zhuyangguan basins, dinosaur egg fossils dating from 210 million to 160 million years ago are also preserved.
In early February 1993, when farmers in Henan Village in Wulichuan Township were building mountain roads, they found a nest of 36 dinosaur egg fossils. The dinosaur eggs are arranged in a single layer, the egg shape is oval, the length and diameter are 17 cm, the short diameter is 13 to 14 cm, the thickness is 10 cm, the shell is 0.3 cm thick, and the weight is 3000 grams. When it was first unearthed, the skin of the egg was white, dark green after contact with the air, except for a few eggs squeezed by the formation, the surface was slightly concave, most of them were intact.
On December 16, 1993, farmers in Zhuyangguan Village, adjacent to Wulichuan Township, also found a nest of 7 dinosaur egg fossils on the slopes of the South Mountain.
In September 1976, Niu Shusen, a staff member of the Lushi County Cultural Center, selected fossils at the foreign trade acquisition station and was pleasantly surprised to find 4 human skulls and 2 fossil teeth in a bag of "keel" piles.
Identified as a fossil of Homo sapiens from the late Pleistocene by Chinese paleoanthropologist Professor Jia Lanpo, the expert named it "Lu's Homo sapiens", which was designated as a national first-class cultural relic, entered the "national treasure" sequence, and is now in the Sanmenxia Museum.
The newly published "General History of Henan", which compiles the fossils of Homo sapiens discovered by Lu Shi on the first page of the book, said in the discussion of human origins that Lu Shi was one of the earliest birthplaces of Henan humans.
At present, Lushi County is the research base of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and is one of the most frequent and concerned areas for paleontologists to visit. (Source Baijia No. Huayu Future)