by artfty | Feb 8, 2023 | Paleontological Science
A dinosaur fossil unearthed in 2021 at the construction site of the front road of a high-speed railway construction project in Dongxing City has completed the first stage of restoration after a one-month restoration by technicians from the museum of Hebei University of Geosciences.
On February 3rd, the reporter came to the Dongxing Dinosaur Fossil Herbarium and saw that the dinosaur fossils collected in the room were arranged neatly, each fossil was numbered in detail, and the restored dinosaur fossils showed clear skeletal Outlines. It is known that in 2021, 363 dinosaur fossils have been excavated during the construction of the front road of Dongxing high-speed railway construction Project. At present, experts have repaired the cervical vertebra, dorsal vertebra, tail vertebra, neck rib, femur and other skeletal fossils, which are preliminatively determined to be sauropod dinosaur fossils.
Zeng Chunjun, director of the technology department of the Museum of Hebei University of Geosciences, who participated in the restoration work, said that before the Spring Festival, they carried out restoration work on the missing dinosaur fossils, mold making, mold turning, and scaffolding, and the progress was relatively smooth. For now, the restoration work has been suspended, pending the next discovery of new dinosaur fossils.
The reporter saw in the dinosaur fossil excavation site, the site set up a enclosure protective awning, to protect the exposed dinosaur footprints fossil specimens. Remarkably, five dinosaur footprints, about the size of a human hand, are spaced out on a boulder. According to the staff, the footprint fossils and bones they found are different kinds of dinosaur fossils, and the expert study determined that they were theropod dinosaur footprint fossils. It is understood that the footprint remains fossil and bone solid fossil are formed by dinosaurs in different nature and buried environment. It is often difficult to have two fossils in the same formation on a smaller scale. The simultaneous discovery of two fossils at the same site in Dongxing is rare among dinosaur fossil excavations in China and has important research value.
by artfty | Nov 22, 2022 | Paleontological Science
A rare dinosaur footprint fossil was discovered recently in Shanghang County, Longyan City, Fujian Province.
The new discovery site is located on the east side of and adjacent to the Late Cretaceous dinosaur footprint group in Longxiang Village, Lincheng Town, Shanghang County, Longyan City, Fujian Province. It is understood that due to the rock collapse, some new fossil specimens were exposed in place, including a pair of positive and negative plates (pairs of plates) preserved dinosaur footprint fossils, the concave and convex footprints on both sides correspond one by one, just like a set of open molds.
“The exposed fossil specimen covers an area of nearly 15 square meters and contains sauropod and theropod footprints, including those left by dinosaurs as they walked, as well as some clear symmetrical pattern marks, representing a lacustrine sedimentary environment.” According to Wang Xiaolin, a member of the National Expert Committee on Paleontology and Fossils and a researcher at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, such a large area of both positive and negative dinosaur footprint fossils has not been found anywhere else in China or even internationally.
The exposed fossil specimen covers an area of nearly 15 square meters and contains sauropod and theropod footprints. Photo provided by Shanghang County Rong Media Center
Most of the dinosaur footprint fossils found at home and abroad belong to the Jurassic and Early Cretaceous, while those found in Shanghang belong to the Late Cretaceous and represent the activity remains of the last stage before the extinction of dinosaurs, which has important scientific value, popular science value and protection value, Wang said. Most of the fossilized dinosaur tracks found before had only one concave or convex face, and it is very rare to see both concave and convex faces.
According to the preliminary statistics of Wang Baopeng, an associate researcher at the Beijing Museum of Natural Science, who was also on the site of the investigation, the fossil contains more than 30 tracks of six kinds of dinosaurs. The number and clarity of the preserved fossils are also very rare, which is of special significance for the study of the living habits and living environment of the Late Cretaceous dinosaurs.
It is reported that the Shanghang dinosaur footprint group fossil was first discovered in November 2020, which is one of the late Cretaceous dinosaur footprint groups with the highest diversity found in China, and the first discovery of dinosaur-related fossils in Fujian Province. So far, a variety of dinosaur footprint types have been found and at least four layers have been found, proving that dinosaurs had a long life history in the area.
