1in the autumn of 964, when the national geologist came to Zhucheng for geological investigation, he discovered this treasure house of paleontological fossils. At the end of 1960s, archaeologists carried out four excavations in the south side of Longgujian, and unearthed a large number of dinosaur fossils, including five individual dinosaurs, including a parrot-billed dragon, a tall duck-billed dragon, a fierce Tyrannosaurus Rex, a heavy sauropod dinosaur and countless dinosaur eggs. Among them, two recovered hadrosaurs are now on display in beijing museum of natural history and Shandong Provincial Museum respectively. An exhibit at the Beijing Museum of Natural History is 8 meters high and 65,438+05 meters long, with a total skeleton weight of 350 kilograms. It is called "Giant Shandong Dragon". 1990, a hadrosaur fossil with a height of 9. 1 m and a length of 16.6 m was excavated from the keel tip and named as "Juzhu Chenglong". This dinosaur fossil is the largest hadrosaur fossil found in the world so far, and it is now on display in Zhucheng Dinosaur Museum.
Duckbilled Dragon is an amphibian that can walk on its hind legs since the late Cretaceous of Mesozoic (about 1 100 million years ago). It lives in lakes and swamps and feeds on plants and mussels in the water. Why dinosaurs became extinct? Although scientists have had many explanations, the exact answer is still a mystery. So, how did the dinosaur fossils in Longjujian come into being? According to experts' research, Zhucheng area was a piece of Wang Yang sea in Paleozoic more than 500 million years ago, and by Permian at the end of Paleozoic (about 200 million years ago), the seawater retreated and became land. Due to the mild climate and humid air, there are lakes, swamps and lush plants everywhere, and a large number of reptiles have appeared. Dinosaurs, in particular, became the dominant group in this period, and they were found in the sky, lakes and land. These dragons lived for about 65438+ billion years. In the late Cretaceous of Mesozoic, the crust experienced another drastic change. Some areas of Zhucheng topography (such as southern mountainous areas) rose relatively, becoming the present mountains, while some areas fell relatively, becoming canyons and river beds. At that time, some ancient creatures on land (such as dinosaur eggs, dinosaur remains, etc. ) was buried in the ground and finally turned into fossils through various geological processes. So stratigraphy is a book that records the history of the earth, and fossils are special figures that record the development and evolution of paleontology.
After the discovery of large dinosaur fossils in Zhucheng, People's Daily made a special report on1October 22nd 1972, and china national radio also broadcast the news to the whole country. At that time, this matter not only caused a sensation in the whole country, but also aroused great interest from all countries in the world. 1in the autumn of 980, a Japanese journalist investigation team made a special trip to Zhucheng to visit Longju, and made a key report in Nagasaki News, an influential Japanese newspaper, after returning home. In recent years, many foreign experts and tourists have come to Zhucheng to visit Longju River, which has become a world-famous treasure house of paleontological fossils.
The discovery of dinosaur fossils in Zhucheng not only enriches the content of paleontology research, but also has extremely important scientific value for the geological division, paleogeography and paleoclimate discussion in eastern Shandong since the late Cretaceous. In order to strengthen the protection of dinosaur fossil areas, 1979, Zhucheng County People's Government designated the Longhua River in Kugou as a key cultural relics protection unit.
Chengzi Site Chengzi Site is located in the highland near Xihe River in Chengzi Village, Huanghua Town, surrounded by Yangjia Zhuangzi in the south, north and west. A cliff 3 to 5 meters high is formed around the site, which is about two meters higher than Chengzi Village. The site is 200 meters long from east to west and 100 meters wide from north to south, covering an area of 20,000 square meters. Cultural layer thickness1~ 3m. The lower layer is Dawenkou culture, the middle layer is Longshan culture, and the upper layer is Yueshi culture and Shang and Zhou remains. The earliest age of Chengzi site is about 4900 years ago (the tree ring is about 5500 years old). It is the earliest human settlement village along the coast of Shandong and the earliest ancient cultural site in Zhucheng.
From the autumn of 1976 to the spring of 1977, archaeologists made a scientific excavation of the site and found 100 tombs in the late primitive society, 3 houses and 6 ash pits 16, and unearthed more than 700 pieces of pottery, stone tools, bones, horns, teeth and mussels. Among them, there are basin-shaped "grimace" foot black pottery tripod and eggshell pottery high-handle cup and other very precious cultural relics. 1978, the archaeologists of Shandong Provincial Museum excavated the site for the second time, and found 44 ash pits, 4 building foundations and 26 tombs. Unearthed cultural relics include pottery, stones, bones, mussels and jade. In this excavation, it is particularly important to find a bronze relic in Longshan culture layer, which is the second major discovery after the discovery of bronzes at the Sanlihe site in Jiaoxian County, and provides a reliable basis for determining that Longshan culture period has entered the bronze age.