The movie "Jurassic Park" released in 1993 "reproduced" the life situation of a prehistoric behemoth like dinosaurs in the form of art, leaving deep memories for the world and setting off a "dinosaur whirlwind" worldwide.
As the overlord of the earth, dinosaurs had a large number and a wide variety of species, and were at the top of the earth's food chain at that time. However, this kind of flourishing creature disappeared in a very short time.
For hundreds of years, scientists have discovered dinosaur fossils on a global scale, gradually unveiling the "mystery" of dinosaurs.
People are also curious whether dinosaurs are extinct, and how did they become extinct?
The answers to these questions need further answers.
Dinosaur skeleton displayed at Zigong Dinosaur Museum, Sichuan, photo by Peng Guangzhao
Looking for dinosaur "footprints"
Before the 19th century, people never thought that a kind of creatures called "dinosaurs" appeared in the long river of life on the earth.
It wasn't until 1822 that the English country doctor Mantel accidentally discovered some ancient animal bones in the newly split rock. This is the earliest documentary record of the discovery of dinosaur fossils by humans, which opened a new chapter in paleontology. .
Subsequently, dinosaur fossils have been discovered in the United States, Germany, China, Morocco, Brazil and other countries, and they are widely distributed around the world.
In addition to dinosaur bones, scientists have also discovered dinosaur fossils such as dinosaur eggs and dinosaur footprints in the wild.
In the eyes of the outside world, finding dinosaur fossils is a rare thing.
However, in October 2020, Yang Zherui, a 5-year-old boy in Sichuan, accidentally discovered the footprints of dinosaurs and became the youngest dinosaur discoverer in China.
During his vacation to visit relatives in Tongjiang, Sichuan, Yang Zherui accidentally heard his grandfather mention that there were many "chicken footprints" on the rocks behind his hometown.
Dinosaur footprints discovered by Yang Zherui, photo courtesy of Xing Lida
Yang Zherui, who liked dinosaurs since childhood, became interested.
After checking these "chicken footprints" on the spot, Yang Zherui concluded on the spot that it was a dinosaur footprint and clearly stated that the dinosaur was theropod.
Later, Yang Zherui asked his mother to contact Xing Lida, associate professor of China University of Geosciences (Beijing), to confirm.
After learning the news, Xing Lida initially identified it as a dinosaur footprint.
On October 10 of that year, Xing Lida and other paleontologists came to Maoyu Town, Tongjiang County, Sichuan Province, and found 5 dinosaur footprints on a stone surface of about 20 square meters.
Experts judge that these footprints are from the early Cretaceous dinosaurs, about 130 million years ago.
With this, Yang Zherui also set the record of the youngest dinosaur discoverer in China.
Yang Zherui's keen sense of smell is closely related to his usual love of watching Xing Lida's dinosaur science class.
Xing Lida, who has 5.57 million followers on Weibo, has been active in the popular science "front" for a long time and is called "dinosaur hunter" by the outside world.
He translated and published nearly a hundred popular science books on paleontology. In recent years, he has discovered a large number of dinosaur footprints all over the country, striving to reconstruct the pedigree of dinosaur footprints in China.
Group photo of Yang Zherui and Xing Lida, photo courtesy of Xing Lida
Xing Lida told reporters: "Since the beginning of dinosaur research in 2007, we have received more valuable dinosaur clues from the folks every year for 14 years. In recent years, 3 to 5 clues came from folks every year, and nearly half of them have been investigated by experts. Confirmed as a dinosaur footprint, which also proves that our dinosaur science work is working."
Discovery of Chinese dinosaurs stunning the world
In recent years, with the acceleration of urban construction, people have discovered a large number of dinosaur fossils from fields and construction sites.
In fact, China is a veritable "dinosaur country".
Among the thousands of species of dinosaurs discovered in the world, China has nearly 200 species, and each category has representatives.
From the "Lufenglong" in the early Jurassic, the "Shulong" in the mid-Jurassic, the "Mamenchisaurus" in the late Jurassic to the "Dybilosaurus" in the late Cretaceous, several major discoveries in China The dinosaur fauna basically outlines the complete process of dinosaur evolution.
In 1902, an army colonel in Tsarist Russia discovered the Manchuria dragon, the earliest named dinosaur in China, in Jiayin County, Heilongjiang.
Twenty years later, Chinese geologist Tan Xichou and Austrian paleontologist Shi Tanski collected the famous Shishi Panzusaurus in Mengyin, Shandong.
The early discovery of dinosaur fossils in China has attracted the attention of western paleontologists. In the 1930s, a number of investigation groups collected dinosaur fossils in Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Ningxia and other places, and harvested a lot.
Dinosaur fossil wall in Pu'an, Yunyang, Chongqing, photo by Peng Guangzhao
The period from 1933 to 1949 was the foundation period for the study of dinosaurs in China.
During this period, scholars such as Yang Zhongjian and Bian Meinian discovered the world-famous Xu's Lufengsaurus in the Lufeng Basin of Yunnan. This was the first dinosaur discovered, excavated, researched and exhibited by the Chinese.
Since the founding of New China, China's dinosaur research has been in full swing.
After the reform and opening up, China's dinosaurs "goed" to the world, and domestic and foreign scholars cooperated in investigations, and the results were remarkable.
Looking back in history, Peng Guangzhao, a member of China's National Paleontological Fossil Expert Committee and former curator of the Sichuan Zigong Dinosaur Museum, said that among the many dinosaur studies in China, three achievements are milestones.
The first is the discovery and research of the dinosaur fossils in Dashanpu, Zigong, Sichuan in the 1970s, which filled the world's lack of dinosaur fossils in the mid-Jurassic period and set off a new climax in China's dinosaur research.
Zigong is still considered to be the largest and best-preserved source of Jurassic dinosaur fossils in the world.
The site of dinosaur fossils in Dashanpu, Zigong, Sichuan, photo by Peng Guangzhao
The second is the discovery of the Chinese dragon bird.
In the 1990s, Chinese scholars discovered a hairy dinosaur-Chinese dragon bird in Rehe, Liaoxi.
In terms of morphology, the Chinese dragon bird is at a relatively primitive level of evolution from dinosaurs to birds, which provides evidence for the establishment of the relationship between dinosaurs and birds.
Third, around 2010, China's dinosaur species surpassed the United States and ranked first in the world. Currently, China has become a “treasure house” of dinosaur fossils and a well-deserved “leader” in the field of dinosaur exploration.
The discovery of massive dinosaur fossils also put China's dinosaur conservation and exhibition on the agenda.
Peng Guangzhao said: “After discovering dinosaur fossils, we must first study the morphological structure, classification and identification of the fossils and their systemic evolution relationship; then we will carry out more in-depth research on fossil burial science, paleogeography, paleoecology, and paleoenvironment. After the research, we will carry out related protection and exhibition in the follow-up."
At present, China has built many professional dinosaur museums such as Sichuan Zigong Dinosaur Museum, Inner Mongolia Erlian Dinosaur Museum, and Heilongjiang Yichun Xiaoxinganling Dinosaur Museum.
The Sichuan Zigong Dinosaur Museum, which Peng Guangzhao participated in the preparation of the establishment, is also known as the world's three largest dinosaur site museums along with the Utah National Dinosaur Memorial Park in the United States and the Alberta Provincial Dinosaur Park in Canada.
Dinosaur site of Zigong Dinosaur Museum, photo by Peng Guangzhao
More secrets of "prehistoric giants" are being revealed
While people are pursuing the footprints of dinosaurs, they are also concerned about whether dinosaurs have become extinct, and how they have become extinct.
For a long time, scholars generally believed that the dinosaurs went extinct 65 million years ago in a very short time.
The cause of extinction has also become a mystery in the history of biological evolution.
A series of conjectures such as meteorite impact theory, climate change theory, continental drift theory, and volcanic eruption theory came into being.
Among them, meteorite impact theory has long dominated the speculation about the extinction of dinosaurs.
The meteorite impact theory believes that 65 million years ago, an asteroid with a diameter of 10 kilometers and the size of a medium-sized city fell from the sky.
The impact of asteroids produced dust covering the sky, so the earth did not see sunlight all year round, the climate became cold, and the dinosaurs could not adapt to the drastic environmental changes and died out.
Fossils of dinosaur footprints in Gulin osmanthus, Luzhou, Sichuan, photo by Peng Guangzhao
While regretting the extinction of dinosaurs, the discovery of a large number of hairy dinosaurs, including Chinese dragon birds, also provides a new idea for dinosaur research.
As early as the 19th century, British scholar Huxley noticed that dinosaurs and birds had many similarities in their bone structures.
Scientists therefore proposed that birds are not only related to dinosaurs, but are also likely descendants of a small dinosaur.
Unfortunately, scholars have been unable to find fossil evidence to confirm this hypothesis.
At the end of the 20th century, Chinese scientists discovered for the first time a feather-preserved dinosaur fossil-Chinese dragon bird in western Liaoning.
The discovery of the Chinese dragon bird showed the world the evidence that dinosaurs had feathers, confirming the hypothesis that "birds are the offspring of dinosaurs", which has excited dinosaur scholars around the world.
In this regard, Xu Xing, a researcher at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, pointed out in the article "Dinosaurs Flying to the Blue Sky" that in the course of evolution, the bodies of some predatory dinosaurs gradually became smaller and more and more like birds. Some species may move to trees to survive in order to avoid predators or find food.
These arboreal dinosaurs jumped and landed among the trees, gradually gained the ability to glide, and finally were able to take the initiative to fly.
The four-winged dinosaur discovered by Xing Xing and his colleagues also provides solid evidence for the "arboreal origin theory" of bird flight.
However, some scholars speculate that bird flight did not begin in the process of arboreal life; a feathered dinosaur that lived on the ground learned to fly while running.
It should be pointed out that the above two guesses all point to one conclusion: hundreds of millions of years ago, a feathered dinosaur broke away from its kind, flew into the blue sky, and evolved into today's bird family.
With the discovery of related dinosaur fossils, scientists are getting closer and closer to fully revealing this historical process.
From Heilongjiang Manzhousaurus to Xu's Lufengsaurus, from the excavation of dinosaur fossils in Dashanpu, Sichuan to the stunning unearthed Chinese dragon bird, more and more dinosaur fossils "see the sky again", more secrets of this prehistoric giant Was gradually unveiled.
Qinglongshan Dinosaur Fossil Group Site in Rong County, Zigong County, Sichuan, photo by Peng Guangzhao
Author: Guo Chaokai