For a long time, local peasants of Lufeng county have been picking up pieces of "dragon bones" to boil for medicinal purposes. It wasn't until 1937, when Professor Young Zhongjian one of China's foremost paleontologists at the time, was relocated to Kunming along with the Nationalist Government, following the Japanese occupation of eastern China during its invasion of China, as head of the Kunming Work Station of the Central Center of Geological Survey. Some time October 1938, two of his assistants doing survey in the Youmou Basin stayed overnight at Lufeng and heard from the labourers working on the Yunnan-Burma Road that some "dragon bones" had been unearthed at Shawan northwest of Lufeng. They took some samples for Yang's inspection. Yang knew that they had hit a palentological jackpot and proceeded to do more diggings. More and more such "dragon bones" were unearthed and he named them “Lufeng reptiles
and dinosaur clusters”. Then in 1995, another large Late Middle Jurassic dinosaur site was found in Ana Dinosaur Mountain of Chuanjie township in Lufeng county with hundreds of dinosaur fossils and the same year, they unearthed a most complete set of dinosaur skeleton to date and in the subsequent years, more and more were unearthed. The dinosaurs were dated more than 180 million years! The museum we visited was built in 2008.
The square outside the entrance to the Dinosaur Park
A closer view of the entrance
Before entering the museum, one has to walk through a bridge on both sides of which are some amusement park equipment like water wheels etc for the young and the young at heart.
The dinosaur museum, with deliberate tower-like features to simulate the long necks and small heads of the dinosaurs
Even the trees outside the museum are shaped a bit like dinosaurs standing up on their hind feet !
A cluster of dinosaur skeletons rebuilt from real dinosaur fossils
A closer view of some of the dinosaurs.
This is the biggest and longest dinosaur skeleton found in the world to date.
This is a real skeleton of the "Lufengosaurus Huena" , normally of 5-10 metres long and 3 metres high, found at Lufeng. Huena is the surname of Dr. Friedrich von Huena, the German paleontologist who gave Dr. Young great assistance in identifying the dinosaur he found.
The digging and processing of dinosaur fossils at Lugeng are still continuing. This is one of the working tables of the technicians there.
This is a picture of the world's first dinosaur stamp.
This is the sacral vertebra of Yuamousaurus Jiangyiensis of the Middle Jurassic Period found at Younamou, Yunnan.
This is the skull of the Lufensaurus of the early Jurassic period of the Prosauropoda infra order also found at Lufeng
The foretoe of Yuamousaurus Jiangyiensis
Some dinosaur fossils exhibited on the slope of the Dinosaur Museum, over which the superstructure of the museum is built.
More dinosaur fossils on the same slope
The exit to the Dinosaur Museum
A door at the museum left open for some reason. A door of hope for academic freedom in the PRC?
The following table is extracted from the University of Calfornia Museum of Paleontology website
| Phanerozoic (542.0 mya to present) |
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| Precambrian (4600 to 542.0 mya) |
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精采的有關恐龍的文章。
回覆刪除若有時間，可以造訪西安，在兵馬俑發掘現場建的兵馬俑博物館，同樣令人震撼。
[版主回覆01/30/2012 15:59:01]Thank you. I saw a huge bill board at a Yunnan highway saying "In the north, there are terra-cotta warriors. In the south, there is the valley of the dinosaurs". Will think about your suggestion
An interesting exhibition.
回覆刪除[版主回覆01/30/2012 15:56:52]Very interesting. But I wish I had more time.
How fragile life is! Creatures as immense and powerful as the dinosaurs could be wiped out from the surface of the Earth by a sudden freak catastrophe.
回覆刪除[版主回覆01/30/2012 22:26:29]It is believed that around the times when the dinosaur suddenly disappeared, the earth was hit by a giant meteorite which rendered the sky dark for prolonged periods of time, thus destroying the kind of habitat conducive to the living conditions suitable for the continuing thriving of dinosaurs.
Thank you for the interesting story about Lufensaurus and your sharing of the pictures from the Lufen Dinoland. Well, as some Christians said, dinosaur fossils are put there by God to test their faith.
回覆刪除[版主回覆01/31/2012 13:14:34]I don't really understand how dinosaur fossils can have anything to do with God's test of Christians' faith! Care to explain?
You must have spent quite some time there collecting so much useful information. Those of us who join a tour may not always be allowed time for this.
回覆刪除[版主回覆01/31/2012 21:03:21]I took along a writing pad and jotted down some of the stuffs the local tour guide told me and also supplemented the same later with some information from the internet.
謝謝你對恐龍谷和祿豐出土的化石介紹！ 兩年前遊的雲南、 那時未去過呢！
回覆刪除[版主回覆01/31/2012 21:05:12]It may well be worth a visit if you're interested in dinosaurs. It was a mind boggling experience to find yourself face to face with the skeleton of these gargantuan pre-historic animals.
想必現場十分震撼，謝謝分享．
回覆刪除[版主回覆02/06/2012 14:18:01]Just imagine, not ten feet away from the remains of such giants which once roamed the earth!
You had a different route. Unfortunately my trip didn't cover this part.
回覆刪除[版主回覆02/06/2012 14:19:04]Looks like it. You can always visit Yunnan a second time and may be go to Shangrila!