The largest Jurassic dinosaur fossil wall in the world at 150 meters in Pu'an Township, Yunyang County, Chongqing.

On the morning of June 28, Chongqing held a press conference to announce the discovery of world-class dinosaur fossil sites in Yunyang.
In the village of Pu'an Township, Yunyang County, Chongqing, a small hillside of earth and stone was uncovered layer by layer, a 150 meters long, 2-4 meters thick, 6-8 meters high "dinosaur fossil wall" appeared in front of the world.
site has the potential to fill a gap in the dinosaur evolutionary sequence.
, head of technology at the dinosaur fossil excavation site, said.
150 meters long, is the world's largest monolossil dinosaur fossil wall "can not be said to be one of the world's number two, but definitely world-class dinosaur fossil sites."
" as the Staff of the 208 Geology Team of Chongqing Municipal Bureau of Land Survey, Dai Hui went to Pu'an Township Laojun Village in Yunyang County to participate in fossil excavation as soon as he joined the company.
he said, "The large amount of fossils is on the one hand."
other hand, early Jurassic to Mid-Jurassic dinosaur fossils are very rare around the world.
this period was an important period in the evolution of dinosaur size from small to large.
", from the fossils unearthed so far, between 180 million and 160 million years ago, there were a large number of dinosaurs living in the area around Yunyang, Chongqing.
dinosaurs lived here for so long, suggesting that the climate and vegetation should suit them well, " said Dai Hui.
" Dai Hui believes that more than 100 million years ago, now in the mountains and mountains of Chongqing Yunyang County was once a place without mountains, there should be a huge lake, the lake is growing a large number of tall plants, the climate is warm and humid all year around.
dinosaurs settled here can be calculated over thousands of years.
village where dinosaur fossils were found, 23 kilometers from Yunyang Xinxian City, is located in the upper reaches of Knife Creek, a tributary on the southern bank of the Yangtze River.
the investigation showed that along the lower Shaxi Temple group rock formation up, about 5 kilometers long range have fossil outs, dinosaur fossil core area exposed length of up to 550 meters.
, one area is the 150 meters long, 2-4 meters thick, 6-8 meters high "dinosaur fossil wall."
, at least 10 meters below the fossil wall, there are dinosaur fossils buried.
in four districts, about a kilometer from the core, there are also denser dinosaur fossils in the older early Jurassic self-flowing well formations.
" now see this dinosaur fossil wall, found at the time of a hillside, on the surface of a few bone outs.
, "This is a reverse slope, to excavate fossils, we must open the thick layer above."
excavation is very difficult.
" after several trade-offs, the final engineering team adopted the implementation plan of "slope method cover stripping, slag dumping, fossil layer excavation and fossil display wall".
to explore deep fossil resources, the staff will also dig three oblique exploration wells down the top of the fossil layer.
"We use a lot of advanced technology, including prodding testing, 3D laser scanning, drone aerial survey, tilt photography and so on.
but the underground situation is not dug out, it is always a mystery.
" Dai Hui said, "little by little digging, cleaning, it took nearly a year to finally find this spectacular dinosaur fossil wall."
, a researcher at the Institute of Paleontology and Paleo-Anthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, lamented, "Dinosaur Park in Utah is a world-class tourist attraction, but the monolithic stone wall is much smaller than here."
, such as Sichuan Zigong, Yunnan, Shandong Zhucheng, etc. are concentrated fossil origin, but Pu'an fossil group belongs to the mid-Jurassic period, the fossils of this period is relatively poor.
point of view, Pu'an Fossil Wall is the largest Jurassic dinosaur fossil wall in the world.
" is in a critical period of dinosaur evolution, and the discovery of dinosaur fossil sites of great significance dates back to early 2015.
, Pu'an Township, Yunyang County, Chongqing, received a report from the public that suspected dinosaur fossils had been found there.
, Chongqing Municipal Land and Housing Administration immediately organized a team to carry out temporary protection and fossil outing investigation.
" dinosaur fossil resources are very rich, but the fossil-rich areas for farming and breeding land, weather erosion is serious, fossil protection difficulties.
", several experts suggested that the fossils should be excavated as soon as possible.
the protection and excavation of dinosaur fossils, three groups of experts came to the site to guide and carry out site survey.
Yunyang Puan dinosaur has also been the authority of experts 3 written identification and recognition.
Xu Xing, national expert committee of paleontologists consultant Dong Zhiming and other experts on the scene after surveying determined that: Yunyang Puan dinosaur fossils are world-class dinosaur fossil sites, dinosaurs here have six characteristics.
first of all, the fossil distribution period spans a large range, from the late early Jurassic to the Mid-Jurassic, to the late Jurassic formations, there are fossil discoveries.
this period of nearly 40 million years.
second, the fossil distribution range is large.
a number of fossil outings on the rock formation, which is about 5 kilometers long.
third, the fossil species is rich.
at present, the fossils that have been unearthed and exposed here include at least five dinosaur subseeds, such as keegan lizard feet, lizard feet, animal feet, bird feet and sword dragons.
the site also unearthed a variety of fossils of other reptiles such as snake-necked dragons.
asked why so many fossils are concentrated and can even form a wall? "That's the fourth feature, where dinosaurs are buried in offslying clusters.
fossils are large in number and dense in general distribution, but the correlation is low.
" Dai Hui said, "We speculate that it may be because rivers, flash floods, or large mudslides brought fossils to this place, so a large number of dinosaurs formed off-site cluster burial."
" fifth, Yunyang Puan dinosaur life period is in the key period of dinosaur evolution, the study is of great significance.
Yunyang Puan dinosaur fossil four areas have a wealth of dinosaur and snake-necked dragon fossils, it is likely to fill the world's early Jurassic late to mid-Jurassic dinosaur evolution research gap.
therefore, Yunyang Puan dinosaur fossils have potentially significant research significance.
the preservation of the fossil wall belongs to the sixth feature.
will be followed by restoration protection and scientific research, and two years after the completion of the National Geological Park, the technical workers at the fossil excavation site are already very skilled.
with a variety of tools, in less than half an hour, a large fossilized piece of rock on the rock body was peeled off.
carefully remove the surface dust with a brush and wrap another layer of plaster on its outer skin.
then the workers shipped it to the warehouse.
this time, a piece of fossil is wrapped in white blocks, will be unified back to the research institute's restoration center.
, there will be professional senior technicians using restoration tools to repair the fossils.
, researchers will be able to carefully compare and study the fossils.
, large-scale on-site excavations have come to an end.
, Chongqing Municipal Bureau of Land and Housing related person in charge of the introduction, next, the staff will have formed a fossil wall to study and protect against the destruction of the natural environment.
" Yunyang Puan dinosaur fossils are important geological relics and natural heritage.
future, we will organize and strengthen scientific research, scientific research on the fossils excavated, and carry out fossil research restoration and installation work.
, " the person in charge said.
to better actively protect and rationally utilize dinosaur fossil resources, Chongqing Municipal Land and Housing Administration will work with the Yunyang County Government to build the Pu'an Dinosaur Fossil Site Museum, scientific research and popular science education base.
, we have approved the establishment of Chongqing Yunyang Pu'an Dinosaur Municipal Geopark, with a planned conservation area of 91.3 square kilometers.
" the person in charge of the introduction, "next step, we will also declare the national key protection of paleontological fossil concentrated origin, and strive to build a national geological park."
"