Xuanhua found that the largest and largest number of dinosaurs in China

The dragon footprints in the Xuanhua Dinosaur Football Group. Noble photography

Reading prompt

Recently, the Hebei Provincial Department of Natural Resources has released the results of the survey of paleontological fossils, announcing that it was found in the south of Xuanhua District, Zhangjiakou to find more than 9,000 square meters of dinosaur footprint fossils. According to the calculation, there are more than 4,300 dinosaur footprints, the single -point area is the largest in China, and the single -point dinosaur footprint is the most.

As soon as the news came out, it immediately attracted the widespread attention from people in the industry and the majority of netizens.

Why does the most domestic number of dinosaurs appear in Xuanhua? What is the significance of discovery to the research of dinosaurs in our province?

Amazing discovery

The largest area of ​​single point, the largest number of footprints

"I have preserved such a good and large -scale dinosaur footprint, and I have also seen it for the first time."

On July 7, Zhangjiakou Xuanhua southern mountainous areas, two dinosaur research experts from Beijing, Li Jianjun, researcher at Beijing Natural Museum, Xing Lida, Associate Professor of China University of Geosciences, and the regional geological survey of the provincial and mining bureau (referred to as the provincial regional regulatory institute) The personnel conducted on -site inspection.

Looking at a stream of dinosaur footprints with complete storage, clear structure, and densely distributed, two knowledgeable experts sent out such emotions.

"More than 4,300 dinosaur footprints were found within a single fossil point of more than 9,000 square meters, which is the largest and largest number of single -point area and the largest number." Li Jianjun said, "The largest dinosaur footprint in China was located in Zhaojue County, Sichuan Province. It covers an area of ​​about 9,000 square meters and contains more than 900 dinosaur footprints. Compared with it, the density of Xuanhua Dinosaur footprint fossils is evident. "

According to Sun Xiao, the chief engineer of the provincial regional region region, which participated in the survey of paleontological projects, compared with the dinosaur footprints discovered in our province, Xuanhua dinosaur footprint not only has a large number, but also rich types. "According to inference, these footprints belong to the era of Jurassic to Baiya Ji. At that time, there should be large forests and water sources here, and there are a lot of planting (script) dinosaurs and carnivorous (beasts) dinosaurs coexisting coexistence of dinosaurs coexisting ","

Xuanhua Dinosaur Footprints found the three -dimensional real -world model. Photo by Zhou Mingxing

"Dinosaur footprints are located on the gravel with fine sandstone about 150 million years ago, and it is covered by thick volcanic ash on the thick layer of volcanic ash, which provides good conditions for the preservation of footprints. At present, we have found 4 different species of dinosaur footprints, which are lizards, respectively. The thunder dragon footprints of the feet, as well as the beast -footed foot dragon footprints, the West An Qilong footprint, and the Wang's Asian dragon footprint. Among them, the Wang's Asian dragon footprint belongs to the newly discovered dinosaur footprint species. "Sun Sun." Sun Xiao said.

"Look, this is a typical beast foot dinosaur footprint." At the scene of the inspection, Li Jianjun pointed at a three -toed -shaped imprint of bird's claws, "This kind of sharp footprint is mostly left for carnivorous dinosaurs. Most of these footprint lengths are about 10 cm. Among them, the largest beast -footed dinosaur footprint length reaches 37.5 cm. Based on this, it is inferred that the body length of the dinosaur can reach 4 to 5 meters, which is at the top of the food chain at the time. "

Different from the beast foot dinosaur footprints, most of the trails of the wolverine foot are oval. This type of footprint is mostly left for implant dinosaurs, and its length is far beyond the beast foot dinosaur footprints. The longest footprint length exceeds 70 cm. Experts have inferred that these types of wolverus dinosaurs can reach more than 15 meters in length.

"This discovery of Xuanhua Dinosaur Footprint has a significant feature, that is, the symbiosis of dinosaur footprints and a large number of siliconized wood." Sun Xiao said.

Siliconized wood is a wooden stone formed by the acting of trees that was deeply buried in underground by hundreds of millions of years ago. Because the silica components contained in it, the name is siliconized. Siliconized wood is an important basis for studying ancient geography and ancient climate evolution during the middle school geological period. In fact, the discovery of the Xuanhua dinosaur footprint also has inextricable relationships with silicone wood.

"The discovery of the Xuanhua Dinosaur Footprint Group is not a day, but the result of the long -term accumulation and persistence of the ancient biological fossil team of the provincial district region." Sun Xiao said.

According to reports, since 2005, with the coordination and support of the relevant departments, the provincial and district region has completed more than 30 ancient biological fossil resources survey and evaluation and protection and utilization projects. Since 2015, the key projects such as the "Hebei Provincial Planning and Protection Planning (2015-2025)" and "Hebei Provincial Key Protective Protection of Poor Fossil Registration and Database Construction" have been completed. In April 2020, these dinosaur footprints were discovered during the process of doing siliconized wood in Xuanhua area.

"At first, when Xuanhua discovered the dinosaur footprint, everyone was very excited. In a short period of time, colleagues found hundreds of dinosaur footprints in a small range." Sun Xiao recalled.

After the first discovery of Xuanhua Dinosaur Footprint, the Provincial Department of Natural Resources, the Provincial and Mineral Bureau actively coordinated fiscal funds, and organized and coordinated the technical units to carry out special investigations.

After more than 2 years of hard work, the survey of Xuanhua Dinosaur Footprint Group has been publicly public: more than 9,000 square meters of dinosaur footprints, more than 4,300 dinosaur footprints, more than 70 dinosaurs, exposed area and number of footprints in the country are the number one country in the country. Essence

"At present, the provincial and district regions and relevant departments have carried out 3D image collection and footprint casting of Xuanhua dinosaur footprints, and carried out the land protection on the spot." In the future, the Provincial Department of Natural Resources will actively strive for policy support, coordinate local governments and relevant departments, further strengthen scientific planning, do a good job of the development and utilization of dinosaur footprint fossil groups, and actively promote the inheritance of natural heritage and the development of the ecological cultural industry. Dinosaur

Zhang Cheng area was a variety of dinosaurs habitat

"Dinosaur footprints, as a new branch of dinosaur research, can not only reflect the dinosaur's daily life habits and behaviors, but also explain the relationship between dinosaurs and the environment at that time. Therefore, it has the effect of dinosaur skeletal fossils." Xing Lida said.

In Sun Xiao's opinion, the release of the research results of dinosaur footprints in Xuanhua area is a microcosm of new progress in the research of dinosaur relics in our province in recent years: in recent years, in the Zhangjiakou and Chengde areas in northern our province, new dinosaurs have been constantly. Fossil and dinosaur footprints were found.

In other words, in hundreds of millions of years ago, Zhangjiakou and Chengde were once the paradise of frequent dinosaurs.

The staff of the Provincial Geological Investigation Institute is measured by the Xuanhua Dinosaur footprint. Photo by Zhou Mingxing

"From the west to the east in the northern part of Hebei, the first is Zhangjiakou Shangyi Xiaogigou Town, the east is Zhanghao Village, Chicheng, Zhangjiakou, and then to the east is Chengde and Ping Ping, and then the famous Chengde Summer Villa and Chengde County ... These are these ... The area is the foundation of dinosaur footprints and dinosaurs in our province. "Sun Xiao introduced.

The earliest experts who started research on Hebei Dinosaurs were Yang Zhongjian, the founder of Chinese ancient vertebrates. In the long years from 1929 to 1979, Yang Zhongjian almost created the research of ancient Chinese football science on his own power. This era can be called the "Yang era".

At that time, there were not many dinosaur footprints discovered nationwide, but Yang Zhongjian named the place names of Hebei: Zhang Beibei and Zhang Beibei.

Later, as related research continued to deepen, the new discoveries of dinosaur footprints and dinosaur fossils in our province continued to emerge.

At the end of 1999, scientists of China and Japan jointly announced that 75 dinosaur foot -trail fossils were discovered in Pingping County. After identification, these dinosaur footprint fossils have been more than 130 million years ago, of which poultry dragon footprints were first discovered in Asia at the time.

In September 2013, a team of scientists found a lot of footprints similar to "chicken foot" in a place called "Luo Fengpo" in Chicheng County, Zhangjiakou. According to research, these footprints are the footprints of the beast horn dinosaurs, about 150 million to 150 million years.

After further research, scholars discovered about 170 dinosaurs in "Luo Fengpo". Prior to this, the local residents mistakenly regarded the footprint of dinosaurs as the legendary phoenix footprint, thus taking a place name for blessings.

In October 2018, in the mustard groove of Liqilong Village, Sibukou Township, Manchu Manchu Autonomous County, the researchers discovered and identified large -scale dinosaur fossils from 130 million years ago.

"It is large and has a body length of at least 7 meters. It is speculated that this is a well -preserved, rare world of dinosaur fossils in the world. Fossils have extremely high scientific research value. "Zhang Focheng, a well -known ancient biological research expert, commented.

More than a year later, on November 26, 2019, a team of Chinese and foreign scientists announced that a new species of maxillary dragons -Yingliang Raptors discovered in Fengning. It is a small meat dinosaur that lives about 120 million years ago. This new species is not only the earliest of Asian mandibular dragons, but also the smallest species in this group.

On December 6 of the same year, the Chengde Cultural Relics Bureau and the China University of Geosciences jointly held a press conference, announcing that a large number of well -preserved Jurassic dinosaur footprints were found on the ground of summer villas and surrounding temples. According to statistics, the total number of these footprints is nearly 300, distributed on more than 150 paving slate.

The continuous discovery of dinosaur footprint fossils have given Hebei a place in the field of dinosaur research in China.

Wang's Asian dragon footprint plaster model. Photo by Zhou Mingxing

"At present, the study of paleontological fossil resources, including the Zhangjiakou and Chengde area including dinosaur footprints, is still continuing." Sun Xiao said that in the future, the research of our province in this field will continue to produce new results.

important meaning

Fill the gap between the two paleomantic groups

"The Xuanhua Dinosaur Footprints belong to the era of Jurassic from Jurassic to the Baiji Period of about 150 million years ago. The biological combination is largely different from the Yanliao biological group and the Rehe biological group. Biological communities between them. This footprint fills the 'blank zone' between the two major mid -generation biological communities, Yanliao and Rehe, which has important value for studying the correlation between the two major biological communities. "Some experts evaluated.

What is the Yanliao Biological Group and the Rehe Biological Group? What are the characteristics of these two major biological groups?

The Yanliao Biological Group and Rehe Biological Group are two important paleomantic groups that exist in western Liaoning and northern Hebei. Among them, the Yanliao biological group is about 167 million years old, and the Rehe biological group is about 135 million years. These two major biological fossils almost include all the biological categories during the transition of the new generation to the new generation. Their discovery is therefore known as "one of the most important paleomantic discoveries in the world in the 20th century". So far, the major discovery of the ancient creature group of Yanliao is mainly concentrated in Liaoning. The research results of the Rehe Paralls contain more Hebei elements.

In the Fengning Poor Bio Fossil Museum, a fossil -sized fossil is covered with dense creatures.

Observe carefully, the individual is larger, and the size of an adult finger; followed by a kind of bugs divided into trigeminals, the individual is slightly larger than the seeds of the melon;

According to the museum staff, these three creatures are representatives of the Rehe Biological Group. Among them, the fish, that is, the wolf fin fish, is a primitive real bone fish with many types of subdivisions. It is a unique fish in East Asia in the middle of the middle and late generations; The lady of the planting insect; the shellfish is the oriental leaf limbs.

In 1928, Gulipp, a paleontologist taught at Peking University, will be named Rehe animal groups represented by these three animals. These animals survived about 125 million to 145 million years ago. Later, more and more animals and plants were found in this layer. In 1962, Gu Zhiwei, a paleontologist in my country, generally called the Rehe biological group represented by the above three animals.

The fossils of the Rehe biological group are very widely distributed, and their scope reaches North Korea, Japan, south to Zhejiang, and Siberia in the north.

According to the data, the Rehe biological group has preserved a large number of exquisite fossils, including more than 20 important biological categories: clam -free, cartilage fish, hard bone fish, amphibious, crawling, birds, mammals, and other vertebrate groups. As well as vertebrates, bilateral, bilateral, leaflets, media, shrimp, insects, and spiders, as well as rotation, various terrestrial plants (including quilt plants), etc.

The staff of the Provincial Geological Investigation Institute took a group photo in Xuanhua Dinosaur Footprint. Wu Suqiang Photo

The well -known fossil varieties of the Rehe biological group unearthed in Fengning include long -dory -fin Yanyan, Aya Yan Beast, and Permanent Birds. Among them, the Aya Swallow Beast was discovered by the China -US research team in March 2007 that it was the first middle -student mammal in Hebei in the country. It was 15 cm in length and weight of about 30 grams. It lived 125 million years ago.

Its uniqueness is that the middle ear bones are connected to the lower jaw bone through the osteicized Mai's cartilage. Experts introduced that this for the first time for the first time of mammalian ear evolution mode proposed by the academic community, it provided fossil evidence in the intermediate link.

The curator of the Fengning Ancient Pyrani Museum of the Museum of the Museum of the Museum of the Greater Fossils, Chao Lin, introduced that the age of the Rehe biological group in the northern Jihe region is earlier than western Liaoning, and Fengning's fossils are hard and delicate, providing good conditions for the complete preservation of fossils.

It is understood that our province has completed the province's paleontological fossil protection plan in 2015, and the biological group of the northern Jihe River is expected to be fully protected. (Hebei Daily reporter Wang Sida Yuanli Correspondent Zhang Hongtao Jia Ruiting)

Related

Why is the dinosaur footprint so precious

The staff of the Provincial Geological Investigation Institute made plaster models in Xuanhua Dinosaur Footprint. Zhang Yunqiang Photo

"According to the on -site survey, although the Xuanhua Dinosaur Footprint Group has different shapes, different sizes, and different depths, most of them have not been eroded for a long time, and the preservation is relatively precious. Therefore, Li Jianjun, a dinosaur research expert, Beijing Natural Museum researcher Li Jianjun said Essence

Li Jianjun told reporters that the reason why dinosaur footprints are precious because of its formation and preservation of the conditions so far.

"The formation and preservation of dinosaur footprint fossils is far more difficult than people think. First of all, the dinosaur living environment is close to the water, such as the areas such as the river and the lake, the lake and other areas. The local footprint cannot be preserved. "Li Jianjun explained.

In addition, after the formation of the dinosaur footprint, if it rains or is submerged immediately, the footprint that has not been dry will be melted in the water. Therefore, after the formation of the wet ground, it takes a certain period of drying the process. After the drying and hardening of the footprint of the footprint, it can be buried by the sediment to form a fossil.

After the formation of footprint fossils, it is likely to be buried underground by the later strata and never see the sun. Therefore, the crustal movement in the plot where the footprint fossil is needed, and it is lifted up. Only the dinosaur footprints may be revealed in front of the world after hundreds of millions of years.

"According to the study, the Xuanhua dinosaur footprint discovered this time was covered by the littering formed by the volcanic eruption after forming a fossil. Compared with the general coverage, the hardness of the lithite was higher, so it was more conducive to the complete preservation of these footprints." Li Jianjun said Essence

The preciousness of dinosaur footprints is that it can provide people with many unique research materials.

"Dinosaur skeletal fossils were left after dinosaurs' death, and dinosaur footprints were left by dinosaurs during their lives. The wonderful moments of dinosaurs in daily life can provide a lot of dinosaur life, behavior, ancient geography and ancient ancient geography and ancient geography and ancient geography. Environmental information. Therefore, dinosaur footprints have the effect of bone fossils. "Li Jianjun said. Today, through these dinosaur footprint fossils, scientists can not only understand the walking posture of dinosaurs, but also calculate the length, weight and size of the dinosaurs, and even calculate the walking speed of the dinosaur.

This situation is also reflected in the previous research of dinosaurs in Hebei.

For example, among the dinosaur footprints discovered by Shangyi and Chicheng, experts found that the scripting foot dinosaurs may be swimming at the time.

"We cannot distinguish whether the dinosaurs can swim on the dinosaur fossil, and the footprint can be used as a basis for distinguishing." Experts analyzed that during the inspection of the Chicheng dinosaur footprint, they accidentally found a group of only toe marks, no heels, no heels, no heels. Footprints.

These footprints belong to the narrow foot dragon footprint. According to the form of footprints, experts speculate that after the traces of the footprints launch, they first leave the scratches of the claws at the bottom of the lake. With the depth of the lake, the bottom of their feet can be exposed to less and less, and the intensity gradually changes. Weak, 3 toe marks cannot be completely retained. Based on this, experts believe that "this is exactly the iron certificate of dinosaurs."

(Text/Hebei Daily reporter Wang Sida)

Source: Hebei Daily

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