[Explanation] Following the first discovery of late Cretaceous dinosaur footprint group fossils in Longxiang Village, Shanghang County, Fujian Province in November 2020, the scientific research team recently discovered a large number of dinosaur footprint fossils of the same period, which are densely distributed and larger in size.
[Explanation] At the dinosaur footprint group fossil cleaning site in Longxiang Village, Lincheng Town, the reporter saw that fossils of dinosaur footprint groups of different sizes appeared densely on a slope.
[Concurrent] Xing Lida, Doctoral Supervisor, China University of Geosciences (Beijing)
After about a week of clean-up work, we have counted the footprints of dinosaurs so far. About 330 new dinosaur footprints have been added. Last time we found about 240. The total number is 600 smaller. This is already very impressive.
We must know that China has very few spots with more than a thousand footprints, and there are already very many spots around 600.
And we see very great potential.
[Explanation] In a small area of less than 100 square meters in the cleanup site, more than 200 dinosaur footprints were concentrated in a small area.
[Concurrent] Xing Lida, Doctoral Supervisor, China University of Geosciences (Beijing)
This small area is concentrated with more than 200 dinosaur footprints. This kind of nickname in our industry is called "dinosaur dance floor", which means that there may be many dinosaurs in this area walking back and forth in a relatively short period of time. trample.
There may be several possibilities in this area. One is a passage for dinosaurs' daily activities, and the other may be near the water source, where frequent eating and drinking are required.
In short, this kind of dense footprint area is very small in the country, so I feel very excited.
[Explanation] Xing Lida introduced that although the regularity of the dinosaur footprint fossils cleared out during this investigation is relatively weak, compared with the previous discovery, this time, larger and smaller dinosaur footprint fossils were discovered.
[Concurrent] Xing Lida, Doctoral Supervisor, China University of Geosciences (Beijing)
A sauropod dinosaur larger than the original discovery was discovered. It was a large dinosaur with a long neck and a long tail and eating plants. The size of this dinosaur can reach more than 20 meters.
After the smallest restoration, its body length is about one meter, which is very small.
[Explanation] The rainy season is approaching, how to protect the fossils of the dinosaur footprints?
Experts said that they have also made preparations for climate conditions.
[Concurrent] Xing Lida, Doctoral Supervisor, China University of Geosciences (Beijing)
This is our rescue work. After the rainy season, we will do some protection on this surface, so that these footprints will be properly protected before the permanent building museum is established.
Wu Shengwei Lin Sigan Yang Guoxin reports from Longyan, Fujian
Editor in charge: [Li Yuxin]