Folklore leads to a "Chinese dragon city"
2022-04-07
Relatively complete water ripple trace fossils and large dinosaur footprint fossils have been newly found in Zhucheng Folklore leads to a "Chinese dragon city" Recently, during the spring field fossil survey, the staff of Zhucheng dinosaur Culture Research Center found a relatively complete water ripple trace fossil and some large dinosaur footprint fossils from the main fossil relic areas of Zhucheng, making Zhucheng usher in the "highlight moment" again. Since the 1960s, more than 30 dinosaur fossil burial sites have been found in Zhucheng, covering an area of nearly 1000 square kilometers, winning the reputation of "China's Dragon City". The secret of keel stream Zhucheng has the largest and most concentrated dinosaur fossil group in the world, with a fossil exposure area of nearly 20000 square meters, 10 times that of Utah national dinosaur park and 6 times that of Lufeng World Dinosaur Valley. It has the largest dinosaur footprint group in the world, with an area of about 5000 square meters and more than 11000, which is rare in the world. Meanwhile, Zhucheng dinosaur fossils belong to the late Cretaceous, about 75 million years ago, which is the most typical witness of Cretaceous geological events. There is an ancient folklore about "dragon" in Zhucheng. There is a river named Juan River in kugou village, Lubiao Town, Zhucheng. It is said that in ancient times, there lived a kind white dragon in the Juan River, which protected the local good weather and bumper grain harvest every year. One day, a black dragon came from nowhere. The black dragon was irritable and made waves. The white dragon was determined to eliminate the harm for the people. It entrusted a dream to the people that it was ready to duel with the black dragon. It hoped that the people would prepare steamed bread and lime. When they saw the white waves turning up in the river, the white dragon was hungry and threw steamed bread into the river; Seeing the black waves turning up in the river, the black dragon came up to look for food, so he threw lime into the river. The next day, the people acted as planned. After swallowing the lime, the black dragon burned all his internal organs and was in unbearable pain. With his head raised and his body bowed, he just ran out of a large north-south ditch. Finally, he died and buried his bones. The locals call this place "keel stream" and "black dragon ditch". Interestingly, some giant bones are exposed from time to time in the keel stream and the surrounding farmland. Local farmers found that these bones have wonderful functions, which can stop bleeding and reduce inflammation, so they took them as medicine, which is called keel. People think Longjian is a treasure land of geomantic omen. Gradually, after the villagers die, they will choose to be buried on the slope closest to Longjian. Is there a dragon in Longjian? Do those huge bones belong to the white dragon who died in the Juan River in the legend of the villagers? For many years, no one knew the true origin of the keel. Until the arrival of paleontologists in 1964, an amazing secret was finally revealed. 1964, the year of the dragon in the traditional Chinese zodiac, is destined to be associated with the "dragon". In October of that year, when the comprehensive research team of the Petroleum Bureau of the Ministry of geology conducted a geological survey in Zhucheng, the strange and huge animal skeleton fossils in the keel stream attracted their attention. Subsequently, they transported some fossils back to Beijing and asked paleontologists to identify them. The identification result is determined as the skeleton fossil of dinosaur, and it is the fossil of giant duck billed dinosaur, which has never been found before and lived in the early Late Cretaceous about 70 million years ago. Hadrosaur is a relatively advanced class of ornithopod dinosaurs. It is widely distributed in the late Cretaceous strata in Asia and North America. It is mainly distributed in Heilongjiang, Shandong, Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Ningxia, Sichuan and other provinces and regions in China. In 1914, the Russians found the earliest hadrosaur dinosaur in China: Heilongjiang Manchurian dinosaur in the late Cretaceous strata of longlongshan, Jiayin County, Heilongjiang Province. The amazing discovery of Zhucheng immediately caused a sensation in the paleontological community. In May 1966, the Ministry of geology sent a scientific research team led by famous paleontologist Hu Chengzhi to carry out the first excavation of dinosaur fossils in Zhucheng Longjian. By June 1968, a total of 30 tons of duck billed dinosaur fossils had been collected and erected. It was 15 meters long and 8 meters high. It was the tallest dinosaur of the duck billed dinosaurs that had been found in the world at that time. In 1972, Xinhua news agency and people's daily successively released the news entitled "discovery of giant dinosaur fossils in Shandong". At that time, the duck billed dinosaur fossils in the early Late Cretaceous had not been reported in the world, and the discovery of the dinosaur fossil skeleton filled this gap. Later, Hu Chengzhi named it "giant Shandong dragon". Break the Guinness Book of records From June 1988 to December 1991, according to the needs of scientific research, the Institute of Paleovertebrates and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Zhucheng jointly carried out the second large-scale excavation of dinosaur fossils. Led by Zhao Xijin, a famous dinosaur expert, a group of duck billed dinosaur fossil specimens were collected at two fossil sites in longlongjian and the West hillside of houjiatun. After the fossils were recovered, after more than 4 years of cleaning, repair and restoration, together with the first excavation of unfilled fossils, a total of 3 dinosaur fossil skeletons were installed and erected. Among them, the "giant Zhucheng dragon" with a length of 16.6 meters and a height of 9.1 meters has once again become the largest hadrosaur found in the world and won the Guinness world record. It is even bigger than the famous Tyrannosaurus Rex (Tyrannosaurus Rex). On May 23, 1992, "giant Zhucheng dragon" was first exhibited in Zhucheng government auditorium, which caused a wide sensation. On May 30, the people's daily made a special report entitled "exhibition of the world's tallest dinosaur fossils in Zhucheng", and CCTV also broadcast the news in "news broadcast". Since then, people from all walks of life have come to Zhucheng to see the "dragon face". Later, according to the needs of scientific research and fossil protection, Zhucheng signed a cooperation agreement with the Institute of Paleovertebrates and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, hired Xu Xing, a famous dinosaur expert, to form a special team and team. Since January 2008, Zhucheng has organized the third large-scale scientific survey and excavation of dinosaur fossils in seven fossil sites, including Longjian, Zang Jiazhuang and huanglonggou, and found the Zang Jiazhuang fossil stacking area, Longjian fossil corridor The fossil uplift zone and huanglonggou dinosaur footprint group are called "the first group in the world" and "the first seal in the world" by experts. The fossil corridor of longlongjian is 500 meters long and 30 meters deep. It is distributed on a 45 degree slope, exposing nearly 10000 fossils. The fossils are densely distributed and scattered like a huge relief; The longlongjian fossil uplift zone is 300 meters long and more than 20 meters wide, exposing more than 1000 fossils, which are irregularly scattered at the bottom of the ditch; There are more than 2000 fossils exposed in the area of more than 3000 square meters in Zang Jiazhuang fossil stacking area. The fossils are distributed in seven layers, with scattered heights and layers, which is spectacular. Within 5000 square meters of huanglonggou dinosaur footprint group, there are more than 11000 dinosaur footprints. The footprints of theropods and sauropods with different shapes, sizes and depths are arranged on the rock stratum in multiple layers, like a dinosaur dance floor. Among them, the footprints of small theropods are only 7 cm, and the footprints of large sauropods are more than 1 meter in diameter. The discovery of such a large and concentrated group of dinosaur fossils and footprints in one area at the same time is a unique geological wonder in the world. What is shocking is not only the number and scale of dinosaur fossils, but also the types of dinosaurs. Among them, the fossils of large horned dinosaurs, fibroceratops, Tyrannosaurus Rex, platypus, sauropod and egg stealing dinosaurs have filled the gap in the field of dinosaur research. "Big man" family Most of the hadrosaur fossils found in other parts of the world are less than 10 meters long, while Zhucheng hadrosaur can grow to 18.7 meters long. People even have reason to believe that this is not the largest individual of its population. After all, only a few fossils have been preserved. It can be said that the platypus fossils found in Zhucheng are generally "big". Zhucheng hadrosaur is huge and bulky, which determines that it is not good at long-distance migration, nor is it good at running like bird footed dinosaurs. Therefore, its living radius is limited and can only live in a small area. Among the dinosaurs found in Zhucheng Longjian and Zang Jiazhuang, almost 90% of the bones are hadrosaurs. Large and small bones not only represent different stages of their individual development, but also show that Zhucheng hadrosaurs are social dinosaurs. In the age of dinosaurs, Zhucheng had a warm climate, abundant rain, intertwined rivers, widely distributed lakes, lush vegetation and full of vitality. Around lakes, rivers and lowlands in front of mountains, there are all kinds of ferns, gymnosperms and angiosperms, and swarms of smaller sauropods and horned dinosaurs; Tall pines and cypresses, Ginkgo biloba, cycad, palm and other plants grow in the low mountains and hills in the distance. There are three or five groups of giant duck billed dinosaurs and large sauropod dinosaurs with huge bodies. Fierce Tyrannosaurus Rex and small theropod dinosaurs roam around looking for their prey at any time. Rich and high-quality cycas, palms, pines and cypresses, gingko and other plants, although the heat is low, the victory lies in the large amount, which is enough to meet the stomach of hadrosaurs. After all, adult hadrosaurs eat at least 1 ton of food a day. The slender neck allows them to eat up, down, left and right without moving. Hundreds of enamel teeth are firmly connected together through bone tissue to form a huge washboard like "mill", which can help Hadrosaurus deal with hard plants rich in cellulose. Amazingly, these overlapping teeth also have a substitution effect, just like the sharp teeth of great white sharks and crocodiles: they grow and replace all their lives. The white billed sharks chew some things with their gentle temperament, but the big white billed sharks do with their blood. The research shows that Hadrosaurus has a unique unrestricted growth mode. The growth mode of animals is divided into limited growth mode and unlimited growth mode. Mammals, including humans, stop growing at a certain stage of individual development, then gradually age and finally die, which is called limited growth mode; And like the duck billed dragon, which can grow for a lifetime, belongs to the unrestricted growth mode. In other words, if the hadrosaur lived a long time, it would grow very big. Some researchers believe that the average age of duckbill dragons in Zhucheng is about 150 years old, and those who live long can even live to 200 years old. Zhucheng hadrosaurs metabolized rapidly and grew rapidly, so it's not surprising that they were huge. On the one hand, rapid growth can make them grow into giants, on the other hand, it can make the duckbill cubs quickly have a huge body to frighten the enemy. You know, hadrosaurs are gentle herbivores. They don't have sharp corners, solid armor or flying speed. Some of them are "big fools" who look like bluffing. The study found that there are special reasons why Zhucheng keeps so many dinosaur bone fossils. Experts envisioned such a scene: one summer, lightning, thunder and heavy rain poured down all cities for several days. Suddenly, there was a roar in the distant mountains. It was like a tight burst. The terrible mountain torrent broke out. The flood roared in the valley, sweeping sand, soil, branches, vegetation and so on. It was overwhelming. Seeing this chaos, birds, pterosaurs, insects and other flying animals fly blindly under dark clouds; All kinds of dinosaurs ran wildly in the mountains, trying to find a way to escape. However, the surging flood, like a runaway wild horse, ruthlessly devoured everything between heaven and earth, and the dinosaurs could not escape this disaster. After the large-scale collective death of dinosaurs, the sun exposure made the bodies decay rapidly, and the whole Zhucheng basin was soon covered with white bones. The next rainstorm washed the bones of the dinosaurs, making it difficult for us to see the whole dinosaur fossil today; At the same time, the debris flow caused by the rainstorm covered everything and buried the keel deep underground. After tens of millions of years, the earth's crust has never stopped changing. Today, dinosaurs, tempered by the earth, meet us again in the form of fossils. (looking into the new era)
Edit：Yuanqi Tang Responsible editor：Xiao Yu
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