The Year of the Dragon is approaching, and the craze of "dragon hunting" is gradually emerging. The Anhui Provincial Geological Museum, located in the Hefei Government Affairs District, is a good place to "find the dragon and explore the secrets". During the Spring Festival, the museum will hold the "New Year in the Museum" activity, and for the first time, the exhibits related to the dragon character will be explained, so that visitors can walk with the "dragon" and have fun.
The first sauropod dinosaur found in Huangshan Dragon Province in Anhui Province.
Dinosaurs, reptiles on land during the Mesozoic Era, have a history of hundreds of millions of years. At the south entrance of the Anhui Provincial Geological Museum, there are two restored statues of Anhui Huangshan Dragon, which are tall and mighty and impressive, and there are physical fossils of Huangshan Dragon on the first and second floors.
He Xuezhi, an associate researcher at the Anhui Provincial Geological Museum, said that the Huangshan dragon was found in the Jimushan area of She County, Huangshan City, Anhui Province, and was discovered in July 2002 during the construction of the Huihang-Hangzhou Expressway, and it was also the first sauropod dinosaur found in Anhui.
The body length of the Huangshan dragon is 10-12 meters, the size is medium, the limbs are stout, the walking is powerful, and it feeds on plants. A distinctive feature of this type of dinosaur is its "small head and long neck". "A long neck can help it reach a wider range of plants and improve feeding efficiency. He Xuezhi, an associate researcher at the Anhui Provincial Geological Museum, pointed out.
The soft-wristed short-nosed dragon "China's most beautiful fossil" shows the geological treasures of Chaohu Lake.
Entering the Life Evolution Hall of the Anhui Provincial Geological Museum, you can see the internationally renowned Chaohu ichthyosaur fossils, which can be called the "treasure of the town hall".
Chaohu dragon fauna** is now in Chaohu Pingdingshan-Majiashan area, which is one of the unique paleontological resources in Anhui Province, and the geological age is the early Triassic Oronic period.
Chaohu dragon, commonly known as Chaohu ichthyosaurus, appeared in about 24.8 billion years ago, it was a small primitive ichthyosaur. He Xuezhi introduced.
In January 2015, researchers discovered for the first time in the Chaohu Lake area, the most primitive ichthyosauroid with intermediate transitional characteristics, the Roubrachial Short-nosed Dragon, a major discovery published in the top international journal Nature.
He Xuezhi told reporters that at the end of 2023, the Chaohu Stratigraphic Paleontology and Geological Environment Field Scientific Observation and Research Station was approved, which is the first approved field scientific observation and research station of the Ministry of Natural Resources in Anhui Province.
Pterodactyl "Air Overlord" deciphers the earliest flying vertebrates.
It is well known that the main vertebrates that can fly into the sky are birds and bats. In fact, pterosaurs were the first vertebrates to fly, and their fourth phalanges (like the ring finger of humans) were extremely elongated to form the wing phalange, which supported the membrane composed of multiple layers of fibers to form wings, which is typical of pterosaurs. The largest pterosaur is the Aeolian Pterodactyl, with a wingspan of about 11-15 meters long, equivalent to the size of an airplane; The smallest arboreal pterosaur was the hermitage forest pterosaur, with a wingspan of only 25 centimeters, about the size of a swallow.
In the Geological Museum, there are rare fossils such as Wooden Bench Tree Pterodactyl, Guo's Green Dragon Pterodactyl, and Dong's Chinese Pterodactyl. By studying these fossils, we can not only understand the past of the evolution of life on Earth, but also look forward to the future of life evolution.
During the interview, the reporter learned that the Anhui Provincial Geological Museum will hold the "New Year in the Museum" activity, which will be open to the public from February 10 to 18, 2024.
During the Spring Festival, it is planned to arrange a "Year of the Dragon" activity in the exhibition hall of the Anhui Provincial Geological Museum (Life Evolution Hall and Dinosaur Hall), and organize science popularization personnel to introduce the museum's exhibits related to "dragons". Thematic explanations will be given to the audience, and the secrets behind various fossils related to the "dragon element" will be explored.
This is the first time in the museum that we will explain the features of the exhibits related to the dragon characters. The staff said that in the exhibition hall also set up a riddle related to the knowledge of the exhibits, and the citizens who came to participate in the activity could randomly draw lantern riddles and find the answers in the exhibition hall, and everyone would celebrate the New Year together.
Hefei Tong Client- Hebao Quan**Reporter Wu Qi Wen Zhang Zhengpeng Picture Correspondent Zhang Shanshan.