Tianjin, June 6 (ZXS) -- Question: How does the fossil skull of a saber-toothed elephant 8 million years ago describe the earth's ecological civilization?

——Interview with Kuang Xuewen, Deputy Director of Tianjin Museum of Natural History

Written by Zhang Shaoxuan Wang Zaiyu

In 1914, French geologists, paleontologists and archaeologists Emile Licent went to China for scientific expeditions, leaving his footprints from Lingwu County in Ningxia to Chifeng in Inner Mongolia. Sang Zhihua said: "What I collected myself, I want to stay here and not take away." When he returned to China in 1938, he left all his collection in the Tianjin Northern Xinjiang Museum, which he founded.

In 2024, it will celebrate the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and France. On this occasion, Kuang Xuewen, deputy director of the Tianjin Museum of Natural History, was interviewed by the "East-West Question" of China News Agency, telling about the past and present life of the sabre-toothed elephant skull fossil, the treasure of the Northern Xinjiang Museum, the predecessor of the Natural History Museum, as well as the friendship between China and France and the context of the earth's civilization told by fossils.

The following is a summary of the interview:

China News Agency: Back then, how did Sang Zhihua find this complete sabre-toothed elephant skull?

Kuang Xuewen: In June 1934, Sang Zhihua took a train from Tianjin to Beijing, then to Shijiazhuang, and then went southwest for a field investigation. After passing through Yangquan, Heshun, Liao County (now Zuoquan County) and other places, and finally arriving at Yushe, Shanxi, the Catholic Church presided over by a Dutch priest in Lintou Village, Yuntuo Town, Yushe County, is Sang Zhihua's foothold. In the following month and a half, Sang Zhihua carried out large-scale field investigation and excavation in the Yushe Basin, taking Wang Lianzhong and Lu Er as assistants and bodyguards. A few days later, Tang Daoping, an entomologist employed by the Northern Xinjiang Museum, also participated.

Due to the large number of fossils, Sang Zhihua organized more than a dozen local migrant workers to excavate, and later added a local farmer known as "Lao Hao", who played a very important role in organizing and coordinating the process of excavating fossils. When the complete sabertooth skull was discovered, Sang Zhihua was so excited that he hugged everyone and celebrated.

Sang Zhihua in middle school (back row, fourth from left). (Remake) Wang Zaiyu

In 1934, Sang Zhihua's team excavated fossils in the Shanxi region. (Remake) Wang Zaiyu

From early photos of field excavations, it can be seen that Sang Zhihua has used the method of "Pirauk" to collect and transport large fossils, which is still used in the archaeological community today. "Pirauk" is a Russian transliteration meaning "plaster shell". During the excavation, experts poured plaster packs in the field, wrapped the fossils in a shaped gypsum shell, and compiled the place of origin, excavation site and serial number of the plaster package.

Like a specially made eggshell, it achieves the protection of fossils during transportation. After returning to the laboratory, the researchers judged the location of the bag opening according to the relevant records, opened it with a saw blade, removed the "Pirauk", and then cleaned up, researched, and restored the fossil.

The mammal fossils collected by Sang Zhihua in Yushe, Shanxi Province, once filled 60 large boxes, including the skull of this sabre-toothed elephant about 300 million years old, which was mainly transported back to Tianjin by mules and donkeys.

Northern Xinjiang Museum Scientific Expedition Roadmap (1914-1935). Wang Zaiyu

Sang Zhihua on a mule for an expedition in 1922, and the road map. (Remake) Wang Zaiyu

China News Agency: Where is the particularity and research value of this fossil?

Kuang Xuewen: The sabre-toothed elephant is an ancient elephant that lived millions of years ago, and its Latin scientific name is Stegodon zdanskyi. In China, it also has a widely known name "Yellow River Elephant". Named by British paleontologist Hopwood in 1935, the orthomorphic specimen is a fossil of the first half of the lower third molars purchased from Shanghai, which only provides a reference for the characteristics of molars for the naming of the species, but only one molars can not determine other skeletal features and origin and stratigraphic information of the species.

On May 2023, 5, the public visited the sabre-toothed elephant skull fossil of Shi's at the Northern Xinjiang Museum in Tianjin. Photo by Tong Yu

In 1937, French geological paleontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and entomologist Tang Daoping divided the skull and similar specimens into Shi's saber-toothed elephants in the monograph "Elephant Fossils in Southeastern Shanxi", which not only provided more skull feature information for Shi's sabertooth, but also accurately provided fossil production location, stratigraphy and geological age information, and believed that it was a member of the North China three-toed horse fauna, and the age was the morning Miocene 300 million years ago.

Tang Daoping is in Tianjin. Photo courtesy of interviewee

The cheek teeth (premolars and molars) used by sabertooth to chew things extend very long, and each cheek tooth has many lower transverse crests on the crown, and even in some late sabertooth elephants, the transverse crest of the third molars can be as many as 12 or 13 rows, indicating that they have adapted well to coarse grassy food. Elongated cheek teeth allow the teeth to be aligned in a new way, i.e. successively advancing forward.

From this specimen from the Northern Xinjiang Museum, it can be seen that its skull is high and raised, and only one of the left and right teeth is used. The large number of fossils of herbivorous mammals of various sizes, such as saber-toothed elephants, three-toed horses, large-lipped rhinos, deer, and antelopes, as well as unique stratigraphic information, indicate that the region has gradually shifted to a warmer and wetter climate since at least the Pliocene.

Combined with the study of other fossil species and stratigraphy, it is not difficult to speculate that the rivers and lakes in the late Cenozoic Yushe area have a hot climate, various beasts inhabit here, antelopes, deer and various aquatic animals, and woods, shrubs, etc. that grow on the banks of rivers and lakes, forming a lush ecological circle.

A photo of a sabre-toothed elephant skull fossil from the Northern Xinjiang Museum in the 30s of the last century. Photo by Sang Zhihua

China News Agency: What is the significance and value of the discovery of this fossil for the study of the earth's geomorphological characteristics?

Kuang Xuewen: Shi's sabertooth is the largest species in the known genus Sabertooth, and its large number of excavations in Yushe further illustrate that Shi's sabertooth is a more common species of sabertooth in northern China. Its characteristics and distribution provide strong fossil evidence for studying the diffusion and evolution of proboscis in China and even in the hinterland of Asia.

The sabre-toothed elephant is currently mainly found in the middle and upper reaches of the Yellow River, including Gansu, Shaanxi and Shanxi provinces. The earliest sabertooth elephant in China was the Sang's sabertooth found in Yushe. From about 650.550 million to 500.300 million years ago, to about <> million years ago, saber-toothed elephants flourished in Asia. With the rapid cooling of the climate in the late Miocene (about <> million years ago), the saber-toothed elephant retreated into southern China, represented by the eastern saber-toothed elephant.

In 1935, Sang Zhihua, in the name of the Tianjin Northern Xinjiang Museum, published the article "The pliocène lacustrine series in Central Shansi" in the journal of the Geological Society of China, pointing out that there is a continuous and complete sedimentary layer in the Yushe area, which is the most complete Pliocene part found in China so far. The number and variety of mammal fossils collected by Sang Zhihua have become important materials for Chinese and foreign scientific research. The elephant fossils, including this skull, are the first in China for their good preservation, variety and variety.

Sang Zhihua is working in the laboratory. (Remake) Wang Zaiyu

By studying fossils, humans can understand the geological history of the earth, the evolution of ecosystems, and future evolutionary trends. Fossils are a fascinating text in Earth history books, and studying sabertoothed elephants provides insight into the climate, environment and biodiversity of the late Cenozoic era in China. At the same time, it reminds us of the fragility of ecosystems.

China News Agency: Regarding paleontological research, what international cooperation has the Northern Xinjiang Museum carried out?

Kuang Xuewen: In 1980, a team composed of Professor Tobin, director of the Institute of Paleontology at the University of Mainz, Federal Republic of Germany, Chen Guanfang, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Li Yuqing of the Tianjin Natural History Museum, conducted research on mastodon fossils in China, including this famous sabre-toothed elephant skull.

In 1986 and 1988, they jointly published Mastodons in Late Neo-Tertiary and Early Pleistocene in China (I and II). The book describes the evolution, paleobiogeography and paleoecology of mastodonts (mammals, proboscis) in China. This scientific research achievement has attracted the attention of the international paleontological community, and also improved the scientific level and preservation value of the specimens in the collection of Tianjin Natural History Museum.

On May 2023, 5, the public visited the Tianjin Beijiang Museum. Photo by Tong Yu

Since 1987, the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Tianjin Museum of Natural History and the Natural History Museum of New York have jointly organized a comprehensive and systematic re-study of the geology (including paleomagnetometry) and mammalian fossils in the Yushe Basin.

In recent years, relying on the nearly 2000,<> Yushe fossil specimens left by Sang Zhihua in the Northern Xinjiang Museum, the Tianjin Museum of Natural History has also strengthened close cooperation with the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, participated in the Yushe scientific expedition team led by Academician Qiu Zhanxiang, and carried out field joint scientific investigation and research on the paleomammal fauna, paleobiodiversity and stratigraphy, paleogeography and paleoclimate of the Yushe Basin, and made great progress.

Tianjin University of Foreign Chinese is known as the world's "first-class museum" in the 20s of the 30th century - Northern Xinjiang Museum. Photo by Tong Yu

China News Agency: Why is the Northern Xinjiang Museum a cultural bridge connecting China and France?

Kuang Xuewen: Through the Northern Xinjiang Museum, Tianjin and Paris have long-term cooperation to jointly explore human culture. In 1923, the French National Museum of Natural History sent De Ri to China and Sang Zhihua jointly formed the "French Paleontological Expedition" for the first investigation, and discovered the first oriental Paleolithic strata in Lingwu, Ningxia, and excavated a large number of Paleolithic stone tools.

A Paleolithic cultural layer discovered by De Rijin and Sang Zhihua in Sarausu (present-day Ordos) in 1923. (Remake) Wang Zaiyu

Subsequently, the "French Paleontological Expedition" set off from Jinzhou, Liaoning Province on April 1924, 4, to Chifeng and Linxi in Inner Mongolia, where Neolithic sites were discovered, obtaining rich Neolithic stone tools, animal and plant specimens.

The most valuable gift from the Northern Xinjiang Museum to the French National Museum of Natural History was the entire skeleton of a woolly rhinoceros excavated in 1922. The skeleton is still on display at the French National Museum of Natural History and bears the collection number of the Northern Xinjiang Museum. The "sister" of this skeleton has been exhibited in the Northern Xinjiang Museum for more than 00114 years, numbered TNP<>.

This connection across time and space is not only a symbol of Sino-French friendship, but will continue to witness more exchanges and cooperation between the Northern Xinjiang Museum and the French National Museum of Natural History in the future, so that cultural relics "come alive" and civilization "flows". (End)

Respondent Profile:

Kuang Xuewen, currently the deputy director and deputy research librarian of the Tianjin Museum of Natural History in charge of collection and cultural relics protection technology; Member of the Science Popularization Committee of the Chinese Paleontological Society, Vice Chairman of the Tianjin Cultural Relics Museum Society. In 1996, he graduated from the Department of Geology of Chengdu Institute of Technology (Chengdu University of Technology) with a master's degree in "stratigraphy and paleontology", and entered the Tianjin Museum of Natural History in the same year to engage in collection preservation, research, exhibition design and popular science education and publicity. He has published more than ten papers, including 2 in Nature (co-authored), and authored 5 popular science books and more than 30 popular science articles such as "Fossil Collection" and "China in the Museum - Deciphering Fossil Code". Presided over and participated in a number of exhibition design and exhibition decoration work inside and outside the museum, of which two basic exhibitions won the National Top Ten Excellence Awards in 2 and 1998 respectively.