Rediscovering Dinosaurs

by Wang Shenna

“I guess you came for the

holes，” grinned my guide Liu Zhaotong when he met me for the first time. “We played there when we were kids but never really understood their significance.” He helped lift my heavy backpack onto my shoulders. To him， the continuous stream of scholars and scientists in recent years hasnt disturbed his life， but has only injected fun and extra revenue. “The home-made guns were confiscated， otherwise， I could entertain you with boar meat，” he joked.

Mt. Laoying is situated near Hongyanping Village in Sanjiao Town， Qijiang District of Chongqing Municipality. The founder of Taoism， Lao Tzu， is said to have developed his philosophy here， so the White Cloud Temple on the mountain peak is shrouded in incense smoke all day long brought by steady streams of visitors. The path leading up the mountain to Lianhuabao Village is steep and densely forested， but smooth rocks along the way reveal that the ridge was once a riverbed long ago. The village at the top was constructed within a massive natural cave crater with a single gate which is so narrow that only two can pass at a time. The terrain inside the “cave” is not even， but the “holes” Liu mentioned are found on a relatively smooth sandstone surface， and number in the hundreds. While the bigger ones are as wide as elephant footprints， they can also get as small as chicken feet. Some are deep while others are shallow， but the larger tend to be deeper and the smaller shallower. The deepest is about two centimeters， and the shallowest is less than one centimeter.

In 2003， Wang Fengping， a staff member of the Bureau of Land Resources and Housing Management of Qijiang District， led a survey group to Sanjiao Town to examine local geological disasters. It was then that they discovered the bizarre “stone holes.” “I wondered whether these could be fossil footprints from some ancient animals because they move forward in the same direction in a certain pattern，” Wang explains. Perhaps his educational background in geology makes it easier for him to spot such phenomena.

Wangs hypothesis was later proved by former curator of the Chongqing Natural Museum， Zhou Shiwu， who conducted field exploration in 2006， with members of the Southeast Sichuan Geological Brigade. Zhou was very excited by the discovery. Due to inconvenient transportation and little time， Zhou and his team had to turn to the method Chinese archeologists use to record characters on ancient tablets： They used ink and rice paper to rub representative footprints. Due to the rare method used to study dinosaurs， these rubbings are now on display in the Qijiang geological parks museum as special artwork.

However， the tracks were not identified as dinosaurs until a young paleontologist had a look. “At the time I was 25，” Xing Lida recalls. “When I knelt down next to these prints and swept dirt off， they appeared as if the animal had just walked away. I even felt the earth tremble as if the prehistoric animals were walking past me.”

Xing has loved dinosaurs since he was a child. He chose to study dinosaur footprints specifically in college. “We are trackers specializing in dinosaurs，”he smiles. “Our job is similar to that of a crime scene investigator. From a dinosaur footprint we can deduce the species， size， and moving speed， and we also look for signs of the size of the pack as well as anyother biological or ecological information we can find. Sounds interesting， doesnt it？”

“Interesting” seems modest. “The importance of dinosaur footprints has been ignored for a long time，” remarks Martin G. Lockley， director of the Dinosaur Track Museum at the University of Colorado. Dr. Lockley is a senior expert on dinosaur tracks. “In fact dinosaur tracks are very important because they cover some gaps in evolutionary records that we would miss otherwise. They also enable us to swiftly match dinosaur species to specific areas and eras.”

Situated in the southeastern corner of Sichuan Basin， Qijiang is known for abundant deposits of dinosaur fossils. In the red-soiled basin， fossils have been discovered in several hundred locations. They include every species now known to have lived during the Jurassic Period about 205 million to 135 million years ago. The areas Zigong Dinosaur Museum boasts the largest collection of Jurassic dinosaur fossils in the world. However， curators regret lacking a single record of dinosaurs in the Cretaceous Period （immediately following the Jurassic） discovered in the area. So far， fragmented evidence shows only that the area was still home to dinosaurs during that period， but nothing concrete has been found.

However， dinosaur tracks recently discovered in Lianhuabao Village perhaps reveal the reason. They show that about 100 million years ago in the Cretaceous Period， a diverse dinosaur group including the hadrosaurus， ankylosaurus， predatortheropoda and pterosaurus thrived there. The pterosaurus was a flying reptile， but its recently discovered tracks appear obviously different from previously unearthed sauropod prints from the Jurassic Period， leading to strong evidence of the evolution of the species.

The most striking tracks are likely from the hadrosaurus which is about 10 meters long and most easily recognized by a flat duck-bill mouth stuffed with about 2，000 diamond-shaped teeth. Of all known dinosaurs， the hadrosaurus had the most chompers. The discovery of well-preserved hadrosaurus fossils enabled paleontologists to easily trace the form of their feet. The heels of their rear feet left large clover-leaf footprints while their tiny front feet measured only a fourth as large. “These characteristics resemble tracks we discovered in Lianhuabao Village，” Xing says pointing at pits and holes on the ground. “Since the hadrosaurus tracks we found in Lianhuabao have some unique traits， I named the new track fossil ‘Lotus.”

Today， Qijiang， a place with extraordinary concentration of dinosaur fossils has been enshrined as a paleontologists“Mecca.” A national geological park for dinosaur tracks covering 108 square kilometers is under construction at the site. The narrow and steep path has been replaced by a cement road， and the village standing atop the precipitous mountain has been reinforced by stone slabs and protection railings. Some might miss the primitive aura， but its now safer for visitors. With the completion of more and more auxiliary facilities， the village will finally become an attraction showcasing the ancient creatures discovered in Qijiang District. In fact， with the construction of the geological park， nearly every resident of the village is forecasting bigger change. Liu Zhaotong predicted that after the geological park opens， their daily life will improve due to better roads， higher demand for local produce， and an attractive place to visit for friends and relatives.