Written by Zhang Jinhua.
This is how history is turned over
The Year of the Dragon comes out of the "Dragon."
Zhucheng is also known as the "Dragon City". The name comes from the fact that the world's largest duck-billed dinosaur fossil was unearthed here, and the year in which the dinosaur fossil was discovered coincided with the "Year of the Dragon" in history.
In August 1964, the Shandong Survey Brigade of the Comprehensive Research Team of the Petroleum Bureau of the Ministry of Geology of the People's Republic of China discovered a large number of dinosaur fossils when conducting geological investigations in the Zhulai Basin.
The site where dinosaur fossils were found is today called "Keel Stream". According to the 1960 edition of "Zhucheng County Chronicles", in the early fifties, the people here often picked up keels when chopping firewood to stop bleeding when accidentally cutting their hands, but they didn't know that this was a dinosaur fossil at the time. The origin of the name keel stream is also because the keel is often found here.
Keel Stream, located in the southwest of Zhucheng City, about 25 miles of the north ridge of the ditch, the east bank of the Juan River, is a natural gully formed by rainwater for many years, more than 10 meters deep, about 60 meters wide, about 800 meters long. The world's largest dinosaur fossil was unearthed here.
The duck-billed dragon got its name because of its flat, wide beak, which resembles a duck's beak. There are generally two types of duck-billed dragons: flat-headed and crowned. The duck-billed dragons unearthed in Zhucheng belong to the flat-headed class. Its physique is characterized by its tall size. The skeletons of the four duck-billed dragons excavated here are all more than 6 meters high. The duck-billed dragon fossil is now displayed in the Zhucheng Dinosaur Museum, with a height of 91 meter, length 16At 6 meters, it is currently the largest duckbill skeleton in the world. According to the records of the Zhucheng Archives, the installation of this duck-billed dragon began in December 1991, with 10 professional team members, and after more than 5 months, it was successfully installed on May 14, 1992. The mounted dinosaur is composed of more than 250 bone fossils such as vertebrae, dorsal vertebrae and hip coccygeal, which is the largest in the world for the same genus and species. Therefore, Professor Zhao Xijin, a dinosaur expert in China who is responsible for the hair and installation of the shelf, named this dinosaur fossil - "Giant Zhucheng Dragon".
A small county-level city has a large number of dinosaur fossil resources, and there are many species and complete categories, which is really rare. In 2007, at the 12th Congress of the Communist Party of China, the 16th People's Congress and the first meeting of the 8th Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), "developing dinosaur fossils and building a famous cultural city" became a hot topic of discussion among the delegates and members. The municipal party committee and the municipal decision-making level conform to the will of the people, and the forward-looking decision of "establishing a national geopark in the keel stream" was solemnly written into the report of the party congress and the "work report".
In 2007, the development and construction project of Keeljian Geopark was identified as a major tourism project supported by the province and one of the top ten key tourism projects in Weifang City.
Keel Stream, a treasure trove of fossils!
Dinosaurs" were shocked all over the world. Bounce away the heavy historical dust, let us trace and review the two major excavations of dinosaur fossils that occurred in the history of Zhucheng to remember these important historical fragments
Dinosaur fossils in Zhucheng have been available since 1964, but the real large-scale excavations took place between 1966 and 1968. The excavation of national paleontologists in Zhucheng unearthed more than 30 tons of fossils, including five duck-billed dinosaur individuals and two Tyrannosaurus rex teeth, including a dinosaur skeleton with a height of 8 meters and a length of 15 meters, which are displayed in the Beijing Museum of Natural History and the Shandong Provincial Museum. At that time, these two skeletons were known as the "giant Zhucheng Dragon".
The world's largest "duck-billed dragon" fossil is in Zhucheng, and this news has spread far and wide, attracting the eyes of the world's and the country's major leaders to focus on "Dragon City".
In 1970, the "People**" radio station and Hong Kong's "Ta Kung Pao" in 1977 were all reported in the whole article. Experts and geologists at home and abroad, especially scholars and reporters from more than 10 countries in Europe, Asia, and the United States, as well as some foreign students studying in China, have come to visit and inspect the "Keel Stream". In the autumn of 1980, a Japanese journalist investigation team also made a special trip to cover the news and made a special presentation in the Japanese newspaper "Nagasaki Shimbun." In particular, international paleontologists such as Martil and Peter came to Zhucheng to investigate. The successful installation and huge influence of the "Giant Zhucheng Dragon" have cast a veil of mystery over the "Dragon Bone Stream"!
The earliest dinosaur fossils found in the Zhucheng Archives were recorded in the archives of the County Cultural Bureau. In the No. 6 volume of the Permanent 82 Quanzong, there is a document from the State Administration of Cultural Heritage to the Beijing Museum of Natural History agreeing to carry out excavations in Zhucheng County. The date of approval was December 15, 1980. At that time, Zhucheng County and the Beijing Museum of Natural History reached an agreement to work for three consecutive years to excavate dinosaur fossils in the area of the keel stream of the Zhucheng Kugou Brigade starting in 1981.
Judging from the archives, although this agreement did not come to fruition, the keel stream has unearthed the "giant Shandong dragon", and it must contain more secrets. So some experts and scholars boldly **, perhaps this is one of the richest dinosaur cemeteries in the world, a treasure trove of fossils!
Develop the keel stream and excavate the underground dinosaur fossils", this voice has not been interrupted for 20 years!
Let's go back in time to 1984. In the same year, the Zhucheng County Party Committee and the county ** took advantage of the trend and established the Zhucheng County Dinosaur Fossil Excavation Headquarters, and instructed the Cultural Bureau to submit the "Report on the Excavation of Dinosaur Fossils in Kugou" to the Weifang Municipal Bureau of Culture and the Provincial Bureau of Cultural Relics twice in October 1984 and January 1985, and in 1985, in the name of the Cultural Bureau, they filled out the "Application for Archaeological Excavation of the People's Republic of China", and reported it to the Ministry of Culture and the State Administration of Cultural Heritage in accordance with the procedures.
In order to be prudent, so that the keel stream to be protected development, to prevent the destruction of dinosaur fossils in this core area, the county dinosaur fossil excavation headquarters in accordance with the spirit of the instructions of the municipal party committee and the city, and actively contact with the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The project was expected to be completed in four years (1988-1991) in four phases, with exploratory excavations commencing in September 1988In 1989, it was formally excavated, collected and preliminarily studied1990 Restoration Study;In 1991, the installation and display were completed. Field excavations are carried out in spring and autumn every year, and indoor sorting, observation and research are carried out in the rest of the time.
On December 15, 1984, the Zhucheng County Party Committee of the Communist Party of China took Zhufa (1984) No. 37 document "Notice on Announcing the Excavation of Kugou Dinosaur Fossils and Construction of the Natural History Museum Headquarters", and began the examination and approval of the excavation of dinosaur fossils, since 1985, the Municipal Party Committee and the Municipal Party Committee sent personnel to Beijing many times to declare the excavation plan with the State Administration of Cultural Heritage and the Institute of Paleospine of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and negotiated repeatedly, and finally on June 29, 1988, signed the " The Zhucheng Cultural Bureau and the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences have issued the "Archaeological Excavation License of the People's Republic of China" to the State Administration of Cultural Relics.
This shows that the second largest dinosaur fossil excavation in the history of Zhucheng has entered the "countdown"!
At the same time, the headquarters also sent investigation teams to the Institute of Geology of the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, the Geological Museum, the Beijing Museum of Natural History, the Department of Paleontology and Fossils of the Shandong Provincial Museum, and the Weifang City Museum to hire experts or obtain relevant information.
On October 9, 1988, the working team led by Wang Jinhua, director of the Zhucheng Cultural Bureau, and Zhao Xijin, associate researcher of the Institute of Paleospine of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, carried out test excavations in the two dinosaur fossil areas of Houjiatun and Lvbiao Township in Houjiatun and Lvbiao Township, respectively, which marked the beginning of the second excavation of dinosaur fossils in the history of Zhucheng
Although the preliminary excavation of the keel stream has only lifted the tip of the veil, the degree of surprise has made the archaeological experts beyond imagination. Because this excavation unearthed a "world's largest", which was later named by Professor Zhao Xijin, the "giant Zhucheng dragon", which is another new species of duck-billed dragon in the middle and late Cretaceous period similar to the world's largest "giant Shandong dragon". In addition, a large number of vertebrate fossils living at the same time as the duck-billed dragon have also been excavated, such as carnivorous dragon teeth, claw tips of hyposiosaurus, crocodile teeth, carapaces, turtle and turtle carapaces, and a large number of fossils. These fossils are important discoveries and become rare and important scientific information. According to statistics, since the discovery of dinosaur fossils in 1964, a total of ten excavations have been carried out, and more than 50 tons of fossils have been collected.
The sound of forty years of synthesis: the geology of the keel stream is too special, and the dinosaur fossils unearthed so far may only be the "tip of the iceberg"!
Zhucheng Dragon".
Since the "giant Zhucheng dragon" was installed and exhibited in 1992, not only Zhu Rongji, Wen Jiabao and other party and state leaders have come to Zhucheng to visit and investigate, but also many dinosaur experts and celebrities from all walks of life have come to Zhucheng to see dinosaurs, which is incomparable to other places in China where dinosaurs have been unearthed, and it is also unique, which shows the influence of Zhucheng dinosaur fossils. The giant Zhucheng dragon was named by Mr. Zhao because it was unearthed in Zhucheng and is the largest in the world of the same genus of duck-billed dragons, which is indisputable. The person who said this was Associate Researcher Li Dunjing. He began to participate in the excavation of the keel stream in 1988 and was also the first director of the Zhucheng Dinosaur Museum, which was established in 1997. Mr. Zhao in Li Dunjingyan is the leader of the excavation of the keel stream in 1988, a professor at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and a famous dinosaur research expert in China - Zhao Xijin.
Professor Zhao Xijin, known as the "Dinosaur King" in China, was sent by the state to Moscow University in 1954 to study geology and paleontology, and was one of the earliest generation of geologists in New China. After graduating and returning to China in 1960, he was assigned to the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, specializing in the study of dinosaurs. Half a century of diligent exploration has accumulated the weight and influence of the old man's voice in this field.
In order to solve the unsolved mysteries of Chinese dinosaurs, excavate, sort out and protect the remains of these dinosaurs that lived on our earth thousands of years ago, and restore the original appearance of the dinosaur dynasty, in December 2007, Professor Zhao Xijin, who has reached the age of antiquity, came to Zhucheng again and stepped on the keel stream again, or for the ancient call and the fossils in the mind!
In the 41 volumes of the 82 complete sects of the Zhucheng Archives, Professor Zhao Xijin personally wrote the following text on May 13, 1988:
The dinosaur fossils in Zhucheng are so fascinating, which is inseparable from its special location. The Mesozoic Basin of Zhucheng is between the Laiyang Basin in the northeast and the Mengyin Basin in the northwest, and there are obvious similarities and differences between them. Through the study of Zhucheng fossils and the comparison with other related fossils, we can basically understand the exact geological age of the Mesozoic strata in Shandong Province and the paleogeography, paleolandform, paleoenvironment and paleoclimate at that time, so as to provide valuable fossil circumstantial evidence for the study of the history of the eastern earth in China and oil prospecting and mineral prospecting in the relevant areas. In addition, the dinosaur fossils in Zhucheng (such as the giant Shandong dragon) have their own uniqueness, which is a rare area for the study of the geographical distribution of paleozoa, and of course, it also provides rich fossil data for the study of the entire biological evolutionary history and the comparison with fossils in other related regions, especially for international academic exchanges in the Asia-Pacific region. ”
This can be said to be an authoritative comment, and it is also the status of dinosaur fossils in Zhucheng!
Friday, December 3, 2010.
About the Author:
Zhang Jinhua works in Zhucheng Archives Bureau.
Note:Without the author's consent**, please understand Mr. Zhang Jinhua.