The story of China’s first dinosaur fossil skeleton (Lufengosaurus xu)

China's first dinosaur fossil skeleton was unearthed from the east slope of Shawan, Lufeng County, Yunnan Province in 1939. Academician Yang Zhongjian, the pioneer and founder of vertebrate paleontology in my country, named it Lufengosaurus Xu. Lufengosaurus Xu is not only the first dinosaur fossil skeleton in China, but also the first dinosaur excavated, studied, and mounted by the Chinese themselves. The story of the dinosaur is sweet, bitter, and interesting.

Xu's Lufenglong

In 1937, the outbreak of the Marco Polo Bridge Incident marked the beginning of the eight-year anti-Japanese war of the Chinese people. From then on, Chinese scientists began their eight-year career of working hard for the country despite being displaced. This is how Yang Zhongjian left Peiping (now Beijing) and came to the Southwest Rear Area. In July 1938, he served as the director of the Kunming Office of the Central Geological Survey of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, and soon began investigating the geology and paleontological fossils of Yunnan. That winter, geologists Bian Meinian and Wang Cunyi discovered a large number of vertebrate fossils in the Lufeng Basin northwest of Kunming during field surveys.

A year later, Yang Zhongjian, Bian Meinian and others visited Lufeng again and discovered a new fossil-producing location. They immediately carried out excavation work for more than a month and obtained a large number of vertebrate fossils and rich field geological data. The discovered fossil fauna is called the Lufeng Saurus fauna, which includes the coelurosaurian Lugoulosaurus, the carnivorous dinosaur Sinosaurus, the paleopod Wulong, Yunnanosaurus, and the giant Lufeng There are precious fossils such as the dragon, Xu's Lufengosaurus and the mammalian reptile-like Bian's beast. Among them, the one with the most complete materials is Xu's Lufenglong.

From 1939 to 1940, Mr. Yang Zhongjian successively wrote research papers such as "Preliminary Observation of Lufeng Dinosaur", "The Discovery of Lufeng Dinosaur Fossils and Its Significance" and "Reconstruction of Xu's Lufeng Dinosaur" in Wayao Village, Kunming. . In the autumn of 1940, the Kunming Office of the Central Institute of Geological Survey was abolished and the personnel moved to the headquarters of the Central Institute of Geological Survey in Beibei, Chongqing. Mr. Yang Zhongjian transferred the fossils collected from Lufeng to Beibei in two cars. In order to prevent air raids by Japanese aircraft, the geological survey site in Beibei was relatively dispersed. The headquarters was located in Wenxing Bay, which is now the Beibei Natural History Museum. The library was built in Yutang Bay, 2 kilometers away. Some simple offices were also built in Tianshengqiao, 4 kilometers away from the town.

Mr. Yang Zhongjian rented a private house in Qinjiayuan, Paifangwan, near the Beibei headquarters, but had to go to Tianshengqiao to work every day. His family's house is a wooden house, which rattles and shakes in strong winds. Mr. Yang Zhongjian disagreed and jokingly called it a "dangerous building" and wrote a couplet: "In the corner of a dangerous building, you can see the mountains behind and the water gorges; I have been wandering for three years, running around here and there." He starts from this dangerous building every morning and walks 4 kilometers along the rugged mountain path to work in Tianshengqiao. The office conditions in Tianshengqiao are similarly shabby, and the small office is drafty from all sides. Later, in order to enable Mr. Yang Zhongjian to concentrate more on studying those precious vertebrate fossils, the institute set aside a space for him to use in the library about one kilometer away from his home. As it becomes more convenient to go to work, Mr. Yang Zhongjian’s work progresses faster. In the spring of 1941, he wrote and published the book "Xu's Lufeng Dragon". This is the first scientific monograph written by Chinese people on dinosaurs.

According to the research of Mr. Yang Zhongjian, we know that Lufengosaurus Xu belongs to the family Plateosauridae. It is about 6 meters long and stands over 2 meters tall. Its head is small, its mouth is pointed, its nostrils are in the shape of an equilateral triangle, and its eye sockets are quite large. The denticles on which the teeth grow are thin and weak. There are about 27 upper teeth and 20 lower teeth. They are in the shape of flat leaves and have serrations on the front and rear edges. Xu's Lufengosaurus had a long neck with 10 cervical vertebrae (vertebral bones in the neck). It has 14 dorsal vertebrae (the vertebrae in the back), 3 sacral vertebrae (the vertebrae in the lower back), and 45 caudal vertebrae (the vertebrae in the tail). Its cervical and dorsal vertebrae are quite strong. The forelimbs of Lufengosaurus Xu's were short, and the hind limbs were long and thick. Both the front and rear feet had five fingers (toes), and the phalanges of the hind feet were stronger than those of the front feet. The first claws of the front and rear feet were both well-developed. It is speculated that when it was alive, it could stand and walk on its hind legs, with its tail dragging on the ground for balance. It can also land on its forelimbs when foraging or resting.

Lufengosaurus xu lived 190 million years ago and was a vegetarian dinosaur in the early Jurassic period. It often hangs out on the shores of lakes or swamps, feeding on dense twigs and leaves, but it is also likely to occasionally swallow small insects that can be easily caught.

I’m talking about Mr. Yang Zhongjian. While he concentrated on organizing and studying vertebrate fossils such as Lufengosaurus, he also enthusiastically used them to popularize science. When he was in Kunming, Mr. Yang Zhongjian once exhibited these precious fossils to the public. On January 5, 1941, after the 5th anniversary commemoration of Ding Wenjiang's death held by the Geological Society of China at the Wenxing Bay Geological Survey, Yang Zhongjian gave a lecture on "Collection, Repair, Research and Installation of Xu's Lufeng Dragon" and guided Attendees viewed the fossil skeleton of Lufengosaurus xu. From June 6 to 8, Lufengosaurus xu was put on public display at the Geological Survey. This is the first public appearance of Xu's Lufeng dragon, which has a strong attraction for the public. No less than 400 or 500 people come to visit every day.

In December 1944, the Museum of Western China was built in Wenxing Bay, Beibei. As one of the preparatory units, the Central Geological Survey is responsible for the layout of its geological museum and placed the fossil skeleton of Lufengosaurus Xu in the exhibition hall of the museum. As the victory of the Anti-Japanese War drew closer, the Museum of Western China organized manpower to make a set of replicas of Xu's Lufengosaurus and continue to display them in the exhibition hall, replacing the original specimens. In 1946, the Central Geological Survey moved back to Nanjing, and Lufengosaurus Xu was also transferred to Nanjing. In 1948, scientists reinstalled Xu's Lufenglong in Nanjing. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences was established in Beijing, and Lufengosaurus Xu was transferred to Beijing and erected in the herbarium of the institute. In 1994, the institute established the "Chinese Paleozoology Museum". Since then, Lufengosaurus Xu and more than 10 other dinosaur skeletons have constituted the basic exhibits of the China Paleozoology Museum. It welcomes audiences from all over the world every day and has become a scientific research center. A popular "warrior".

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