China News Service, Beijing, February 22 (Reporter Sun Zifa) 33 million years ago, a crocodile was stepped on the feces of the crocodile, and then was buried in a sudden accident and became a strange crocodile footprint and feces coexisting. fossil.
The world's first crocodile footprint fecal fossil was discovered by Deng Tao's research team from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (Institute of Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences) in cooperation with the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology at the Na Duong site in Vietnam. , whose research paper is the first important achievement of the cooperation project between the Institute of Paleo-Spine of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Vietnam National Museum of Natural History, which was recently published online in the international professional academic journal Palaeoworld.
The world's first crocodile footprint fecal fossil specimen.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Sun Zifa
Researcher Deng Tao said in an interview with a reporter from China News Agency on the 22nd that the latest research found that it is the first time in the world that the fossilized feces of crocodiles and the fossils of crocodile footprints are integrated.
This discovery is also the result of international cooperation. According to the cooperation agreement signed by the Institute of Paleontology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Vietnam National Museum of Natural History in 2018, the two parties jointly conducted a field scientific investigation of paleontology in Vietnam that autumn, and discovered the world's first crocodile footprint fecal fossil in the Nayang Coal Mine. samples for research.
Artistic reconstruction of the world's first crocodile footprint fecal specimen.
Photographed by Zhang Zongda
In terms of international cooperation, this research result can be said to be jointly completed by researchers from four countries. In addition to the cooperation between China and Vietnam, the first author of the paper is Kaiser, a Turkish doctoral student from the research team of the Institute of Ancient Spine of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the corresponding author of the paper is the ancient spine of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Dr. Paul Lamy, a Malaysian national of the research team.
Researcher Deng Tao examines newly discovered fossils during a field expedition in Vietnam.
Photo by Wu Feixiang
On the same day, Paul Lamy said in an interview that, as a new thing in the field of paleontology, fecal fossils have become a very important part of trace fossil research. In recent years, rare and unique fecal fossil research has attracted widespread attention, and has established an academic system.
A cooperative scientific research team conducts a field scientific expedition in Vietnam.
Photo by Wu Feixiang
He said that the crocodile footprint faeces fossils studied in this study were collected from the Nayang coal mine in Lang Son province, northern Vietnam, adjacent to Guangxi, China. The fossil strata are about 33 million years old.
The research team studied the internal and external morphology of crocodile footprint fecal fossils and various geochemical indicators by means of computed tomography (CT) technology, scanning electron microscope (SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS). Go to the crocodile farm to observe and compare the feces of modern crocodiles.
In 2018, the signing ceremony of the memorandum of cooperation between the Institute of Ancient Spine of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Vietnam National Museum of Natural History.
Photo by Kaiser
The results of the study confirmed that the fossil specimens of the footprints were crocodile feces and crocodile footprints 33 million years ago. Because crocodiles are social animals, it is still uncertain whether the footprints on the feces were left by the crocodile itself or by other people next to it. crocodile stepped on.
But in any case, fossils that preserve footprints on fecal surfaces, this unique assemblage of trace fossil types has not been documented and publicly reported before.
The world's first crocodile footprint fecal fossil specimen.
Photo courtesy of the Institute of Ancient Spine, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Deng Tao said that the Sino-Vietnamese team cooperated in the field scientific investigation of paleontology in Vietnam. In addition to discovering the world's first footprint fecal fossil specimens, more than 100 crocodile fecal fossils, as well as plant fossils, turtle and crocodile skeleton fossils were also found at the Nayang site. On the basis of the latest publication of the first collaborative research paper, more related collaborative research results will be published in succession.
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