CCTV news: Recently, Lufeng villagers once again found dinosaur fossils. Since the discovery of the first body in 1938, more than 200 relatively complete dinosaur fossils have been excavated in Lufeng, Yunnan, spanning the early, middle and late Jurassic periods. From the discovery of dinosaurs in the war-torn era to the present, many studies of dinosaur fossils have pushed China to the forefront of paleontological research. So, what is the significance of dinosaur research? Did the dinosaurs really go extinct?
The world of the early Jurassic period had no flowers or grasses
In 1938, the first dinosaur skeleton excavated, studied and mounted by the Chinese himself, Xu's Lufeng Dragon, came from Lufeng, Yunnan, and Lufeng was also known as the hometown of Chinese dinosaurs. Recently, two more dinosaur fossils were found here.
According to the preliminary judgment of scientists, one of them is Lu Fenglong, about 3 meters tall, weighs about 4 tons, and is about 30 or 40 years old; the gender cannot be judged, and it is necessary to have dinosaur eggs or the bones of pregnant dinosaurs to identify.
Through virtual restoration, you can see that the early Jurassic world had no flowers and no grass, and the plants that grew were the ferns that dinosaurs loved to eat, as well as ginkgo biloba and pine cypress.
Dinosaurs did not go extinct, and a branch of dinosaurs evolved into birds
Did the dinosaurs really go extinct? Xing Lida, an associate professor at China University of Geosciences (Beijing), said scientists have found a large number of feathered dinosaur fossils in Liaoning, indicating that a branch of dinosaurs evolved into birds. In other words, dinosaurs did not go extinct, but flew in the sky. We can see that many of the behaviors of birds are very similar to those of dinosaurs.
The meaning of "social terror" in ancient times is not the same as it is today
Dinosaurs living in the pre-Jurassic period were no longer a problem, and scientists believed that they had a new social pursuit.
You Hailu, a researcher at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that through the fossils of dinosaur skulls, it can be seen that the chinese dragon has a pair of thin "chicken crowns" on the top of its head, which may still be hollow, obviously it can not be used as a weapon, but plays a decorative role, used to communicate with peers and show off themselves.
That said, dinosaurs during the Jurassic period were actively socializing.
In the movie "No Questions Asked", the prototype of the paleontological teacher is the discoverer of Lu Fenglong
Xu's Discovery, a plant-eating dinosaur that lived in the early Jurassic period, opened the prelude to chinese dinosaur research.
There is such a clip in the movie "No Questions Asked": under the bombardment of Japanese aircraft, the teachers and students of southwest United University hid in the cave of the ancient biology class, and the prototype of the old professor was The discoverer of Lu Fenglong, Yang Zhongjian, the founder of Chinese dinosaur fossil research, and the dinosaur model in the class was Lu Fenglong.
In such difficult times, Chinese scientists have not stopped exploring dinosaurs. So far, there are more than 200 kinds of dinosaurs named by Chinese scientists, and the ancient secrets left by those fossils are increasingly being uncovered. At the same time, the continuous research of these precious fossils has also pushed China to the forefront of paleontological research.
What is the significance of dinosaur research?
Regarding the significance of dinosaur research, You Hailu, a researcher at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that the past is a key to the future, and dinosaurs are only a window for studying past life, but through dinosaurs we can cross these multidisciplinary disciplines to really let us understand the process of biological evolution, especially what the nature of life is.
A minimalist history of dinosaurs
Available fossil evidence suggests that early dinosaurs appeared on land about 230 million years ago.
About 200 million years ago, the earth entered the Jurassic period, and dinosaurs flourished and dominated the land.
A large number of dinosaur fossils from the Jurassic period have been unearthed in China, such as Lufeng Dragon, Yunnan Dragon, Jinshan Dragon and Chinese Dragon in the early Jurassic Period, Chuanjie Dragon and Era Dragon in the middle period, and Mamenxi Dragon in the late Period.
About 140 million years ago, the Earth entered the Cretaceous period, and the species of dinosaurs reached its peak.
About 66 million years ago, there was a dinosaur mass extinction event, in which all non-avian dinosaurs became extinct, and the land overlord ceased to exist.