According to statistics, China is the country with the largest number of dinosaurs found in the world. One of the largest dinosaurs ever found in China, The Dragon is 35 meters long and 4 meters on one leg alone. How was the first dinosaur egg found? What stories happened to dinosaurs before they were born?
Produced by: Gezhi Dao Pulpit
The following is the transcript of the speech of Jiang Hong, a popular science writer on paleontology:
I am Jiang Hong, a small thief of the Jiang clan, a popular science writer of ancient creatures, and everyone can also call me a little thief.
First of all, let me ask you a question, do you like dinosaurs or not? Today we're going to tell a story about dinosaurs. The title of the lecture is "From An Egg to a Dragon."
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > why is it called "Louis Babe"? </h1>
In the first story, we will first tell about a dinosaur egg called "Louis Babe".
There are several dinosaur eggs on the background of this photo, and the shiny part of its front is actually a fossilized dinosaur skeleton.
However, we do not call it dinosaur fossils, called skeleton fossils, called embryonic fossils, because the fossils of small dinosaurs that were not born from eggs are called embryonic fossils.
This picture is divided into two pictures, first look at the picture on the right, in fact, this is a nest of eggs, a total of five eggs have been preserved.
Directly above this nest of eggs, in the upper left corner, a fossil of a dinosaur embryo is preserved.
Why is it called "Louis Babe"? Let's start with the discovery of this nest of eggs and dinosaur embryo fossils.
The time is 1993, when the nest of eggs was found in Xixia County, Henan Province.
But after the discovery, it was not handed over to paleontologists, but was obtained by fossil dealers, that is, criminals.
After getting it, because they also know a lot about fossils, they know that this fossil is very valuable when they look at it, because it has dinosaur embryos, which are rare and smuggled to the United States in 1996.
Because it was smuggled to the United States, after arriving in the United States, first take a group of photos, who gave it a photo?
It was this man, named Louis Sihoeus. People don't know much about this person, as if they haven't heard his name.
Have you seen this movie? It's called Dolphin Bay, and it was shot by West Hoyos.
This movie is about how the Japanese slaughtered dolphins, and it is one of the few movies that I can't bear to watch.
Louis Sihoyus took a set of photographs of dinosaur eggs from China's Xixia and published them in National Geographic, which was published that year.
This is the cover of that issue of the magazine that year, and as soon as I saw the cover, I knew that the theme of this issue was dinosaur eggs.
Because the FOLLOWING DINOSAUR EGGS is about this nest of dinosaur eggs in China, and the cover is a restored model of a small dinosaur that was not born.
It is precisely because of this issue of the magazine and this set of fossil photos taken by Louis to this dinosaur egg that he became famous, so everyone named this group of fossils and this dinosaur embryo "Louis Babe".
This nest of dinosaur eggs and this embryo fossil was popularized by National Geographic magazine, became famous, and after becoming famous, it appreciated in value, and after appreciation, it was sold to the museum in the picture, the Children's Museum of Indianapolis.
It was sold to the museum in 2001, and when the museum got the fossil, it placed it in the center of the exhibition hall, that is, the "C debut".
The director of the museum thought that my museum had the best fossils, and the media would definitely rush to report on me.
But he opened up various media reports about his purchase of dinosaur eggs and found that there was no praise, all criticism, why criticism?
Because according to international practice, all kinds of smuggled fossils are not allowed to be publicly displayed and studied, and fossils should be returned to the country where the fossils are produced.
Under great pressure, the director of the Children's Museum of Indianapolis finally approached the Chinese side and said that since this fossil is yours Chinese and smuggled, return it to you China.
So to whom? It should be returned to the location of the country where the fossils were produced, that is, Henan Province, which has a Henan Geological Museum.
After many years of negotiations, finally in 2013, Louis Bebe's fossils were officially returned to the Geological Museum in Henan.
The fourth person in the photo from left to right is the director of the Henan Geological Museum, which was taken when the two museums officially handed over the fossils.
After the Henan Geological Museum got the fossil of Louis Bebe, it quickly planned a special exhibition called "Dragon Teng zhongyuan".
The small print section reads "Louis Bebey and the Central Plains Dragon Special Exhibition", which dates from late 2014 to early 2015 at the Beijing Museum of Natural History.
This is a photo of the scene when Louis Babe's fossil was transported to the Beijing Museum of Natural History to open the box.
Because I was also on the scene at that time, I was particularly excited to see the fossil for the first time, after all, this fossil is particularly famous in the world.
After this fossil was exhibited, it was found that it could not be classified as any kind of dinosaur we know, so this fossil should be studied, what is the name of the dragon?
After studying it, we said, let's call it "Bebelon", because it is called Louis Bebey, so it is easier to remember.
This is a restoration of a bebelon, which can be seen with feathers, a bit like a super large turkey, but it actually belongs to the class of oviraptorosaurs and is very large.
This dinosaur is 6 meters long, equivalent to the length of a car, the height, that is, the height of the buttocks, that is, the height of the buttocks is 3 meters, there is a floor and a half of the height, the weight is 1.1 tons, compared with people is very large.
When I was visiting the Natural History Museum, the Chongqing Museum of Natural History was exhibiting a model of Bebelon, so I quickly went up and rubbed a photo, and its head was bigger than my body.
This is the first story, it's Bebelon, Louis Bebe.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > the first dinosaur egg and the "egg thief"</h1>
Louis Babe belongs to the oviraptorosaur class, in fact, all dinosaurs are eggs, where did we find the first dinosaur egg? Let's start with this picture.
This era is actually very early, 100 years ago, the twenties of the twentieth century.
At that time, the American Museum of Natural History wanted to study how humans evolved, and they guessed that there was a key evidence of human evolution in Central Asia - fossils.
An expedition was organized, called the Central Asian Expedition.
The leader of the expedition was the tallest man in the middle of the second row in the photo, named Roy Chapman Andrews.
He is very famous and has a nickname called Dinosaur Cowboy.
Because looking at the photo is a typical cowboy outfit, wearing a cowboy hat, riding a big horse, carrying a rifle, and looking like a cowboy.
It was also with the Central Asian expedition that he came to China, came to Mongolia, found that he was famous, and also appeared in the American Time magazine of that year.
His story was so legendary in the West that it was even made into a movie called Raiders of the Lost Ark and Professor Indiana Jones.
In fact, it tells a story of how to find treasure, and its story is originally an Andrews's great discovery in Asia.
Travel back to the discovery of Andrews.
He began it in 1922, starting from Beijing, when it was not called Beijing, it was called Beiping, then entered Hebei Province, passed through Inner Mongolia, and arrived in Outer Mongolia in 1923.
At that time, Outer Mongolia was also the territory of China, and there was a place in Outer Mongolia called the Bayinzada Basin.
In this basin, paleontologists have found a large number of dinosaur fossils, and fossils of dinosaur eggs have been found.
This is also the first time we have found fossils of dinosaur eggs, proving that dinosaurs did indeed lay eggs.
We not only found dinosaur eggs, but also found a nest of dinosaur eggs, you can guess who gave birth to this dinosaur egg, in fact, protocerapidosaurus.
This dinosaur was a close relative of Triceratops, but it was primitive and smaller than Triceratops, with a body length of only 1.8 meters, a height of 0.6 meters, and a weight of 150 kilograms, equivalent to the size of a pig.
Why do paleontologists guess that these eggs are those of protoceratops?
It was because the most discovered at that time was protocerapidosaurs, so we found dinosaur eggs, and we naturally thought that they were the most common dinosaur eggs.
This is now our restoration of the protocera, which is much more cute and the colors are more vivid.
When paleontologists excavated dinosaur nests, something was found in the dinosaur nests.
This is actually the skull of a crushed dinosaur.
After restoration, its skull should look like this, it is a theropod dinosaur, which is what we usually call a meat-eating dinosaur.
And in terms of its appearance, it has a beak, a bit like today's birds.
It is this kind of thing, called the crane ostrich, also called cassowary, found in Australia, with a bony crown on the head, which is very similar to the crown of this dinosaur.
Paleontologists have named this dinosaur Oviraptorosaurus, why is it called Oviraptorosaurus?
It was because paleontologists made up their brains at that time, why can fossils of flesh-eating dinosaurs be found in the lairs of protocerapids?
Most likely because this dinosaur went to steal eggs, and then in the process of stealing eggs, protocerapid parents came home, saw a thief who stole eggs, and then stomped on its head.
So this dinosaur is an egg stealing dinosaur, we call it egg stealing dragon.
It's a scene of an egg thief stealing an egg, it's stealing the eggs of a protocera, and then just as a protocera go home and catch the egg thief.
The name Oviraptorosaurus was used for 70 years, and by 1993, the American paleontologist Mark Noriel had returned to Mongolia.
And he studied the fossils of dinosaur eggs that the Chinese and foreign expeditions found 70 years ago, that is, dinosaur eggs that are believed to be protoceratops.
Later, it was found that there was also a fossil of a dinosaur embryo, and compared with it, it was found that it was not a protocerapidosaur, or a fossil of oviraptorosaurs themselves.
So it turns out that this oviraptorosaur did not steal eggs, at least from the fossil evidence, did not steal eggs, it was killed in its own home, in its own nest.
A few years later, paleontologists discovered another dinosaur, also found in Mongolia.
This dinosaur is very similar in appearance to Oviraptorosaurus, a close relative of Oviraptorosaurus, called Fuluosaurus.
This posture of burying the fossils of the dragon, it is lying on its stomach, its two forelimbs are open, and there is a nest of dinosaur eggs under its body, and you can see the dinosaur eggs arranged one by one.
This fire dragon died because of the protection of its own eggs.
Paleontologists reconstruct the scene at that time, believing that this fire dragon encountered a sandstorm.
But it didn't want to abandon its own little dinosaur that hadn't yet been born, so it used its body to protect the nest of eggs, and as a result, it was buried by yellow sand.
After burial, after more than 70 million years, it became a fossil of dinosaurs.
It is precisely because we have discovered that the close relatives of the oviraptorosaur have this kind of egg protection behavior, and we think that in fact, the oviraptorosaur does not steal eggs.
Not only does Oviraptorosaur not steal eggs, but also takes care of its own dinosaur eggs.
This is what we have now painted for the oviraptorosaur, is it very similar to today's birds? Many birds today also incubate eggs.
That's the second story, and we tell the story before the dinosaurs were born.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > the history of growth in the mud</h1>
Let's tell the story of the birth of a dinosaur.
The location of this story is the Junggar Basin in Xinjiang, there is a place called Wucai Bay, why is it called Wucai Bay? It is precisely because the soil of this place is colorful.
In addition to the beautiful color of the soil, paleontologists have found a large number of dinosaur fossils from the Jurassic period 160 million years ago here.
Then paleontologists found the thing, a circular mud column, 1.25 meters high and about 60 centimeters wide, equivalent to the size of a gasoline barrel.
It was discovered in 2016, 160 million years ago, so why did such a strange cylindrical mudstone be discovered?
It is because a large number of paleontological fossils have been preserved in the mudstone, like a natural coffin, a Jurassic coffin, and paleontologists began to open this coffin.
I started from the first layer above and cleaned up little by little, the first one to clean up was called Guanlong, why is it called Guanlong?
Just look at its skull, it has a big crown on its head, and it looks like this to restore it.
The crowned dinosaur is called Crested Dinosaur, which is a typical theropod dinosaur, flesh-eating, 3 meters long.
Then paleontologists continued to clean up downwards and found a second dinosaur, called the Mud Pond Dragon, because it was in the mud pool, it was preserved, so it was called the Mud Pond Dragon.
It was also a theropod dinosaur, but it was an outlier among theropod dinosaurs because it didn't eat meat, it ate plants.
It does not have teeth inside its mouth, so we think it mainly eats plants, and may also eat some insects, which is an omnivorous animal.
It's a layer of restoration. Moving on, we find a third victim.
The third victim is actually not one, but three, and looks particularly like a quagmire dragon, and below is the third victim, which is relatively small, looks very similar, but it is different.
What's different? Opening its mouth, it saw that there were sharp teeth inside, and since the third victim had grown sharp teeth, it should have eaten meat, and it was a carnivorous dinosaur.
So should we name this new dinosaur again?
As we prepared to name it, we delved deeper and found that the third dinosaur was a mire dragon when it was a child.
Why did the mud dragon grow up to eat plants and have no teeth, but when it was a child, it was toothless and meat-eating?
In fact, this is a very special kind of evolution, that is, the process of growth.
This picture shows the adult mud pond dragon and the juvenile mud pool dragon compared to our adult body shape.
This is when a group of quagmire dragons came of age.
When they were young, when they were born, they did eat meat, but in the process of growing up, the fangs fell out and their eating habits changed, from eating meat to eating plants.
So although in a group of mud dragons, adults and young ones are together, adult mud dragons eat plants, and young mud dragons eat meat.
We found 7 dinosaurs in this mud pillar, two dinosaurs, which was a death trap, a death trap during the Jurassic period.
It was a dinosaur that fell into the mire, drowned, and after 160 million years, turned into fossils.
How exactly did this mud pit come about? Was it naturally formed, or was it dug up?
Later, it was found that someone had dug it, someone had dug a pit, and then this little dinosaur had fallen into it and drowned.
It is the oversized dinosaur in the picture, it is called Zhongjia Mamen Xilong, with a body length of 35 meters, and a leg alone is 4 meters long.
So it walked in the mud, walked out of a 1-meter-deep pit, pulled its leg and left, but the pit became a trap for small dinosaurs.
The little dinosaur did not see it, walked over happily, fell into it and drowned, and then became the fossil we found today.
But the Mamen Creek Dragon didn't mean it, it didn't mean to dig this pit.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > largest dinosaur</h1>
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > the Chinese Jiamamen Xilong just introduced, is one of the largest dinosaurs found in China. </h1>
The other is called the First Dragon of Huaxia, the giant Ruyang Dragon, which was found in Ruyang, Henan Province, with a body length of 36 to 38 meters, a shoulder height of 6 meters, and a weight of more than 60 tons.
This dinosaur was exhibited at the 2014 Dragon Rising Central Plains Special Exhibition.
At that time, in addition to Louis Babe came to the Beijing Museum of Natural History, this giant Ruyang dragon also came to the Beijing Museum of Natural History.
Its fossils are too big to be exhibited inside the pavilion, so they can only be erected in the open space outside.
This is a contrast between an adult and a dinosaur.
This is a dinosaur photographed from above, and if its head is lifted, it can be 10 meters above the ground.
Just looking at the neck and body parts of the giant Ruyang Dragon, the contrast with humans is very, very huge.
These two are the two largest dinosaurs found in China, the back is darker, the more solid one is the giant Ruyang Dragon, and the front one is the Zhongjia Mamen Xi Dragon.
How big is the Middle Canada Mamen Creek Dragon?
It is 35 meters long and weighs more than 60 tons, and was found in Xinjiang.
In fact, there are many kinds of Mamenxi dragons, the Mamenxi dragon is the largest, and the others are Hechuan Mamenxi dragon, Jianjian Mamenxi dragon, and Yang's Mamenxi dragon.
These are only 22 meters long, and they were all very large dinosaurs before the discovery of The Middle Camamon Xilong.
However, after the discovery of the Middle Jia Ma Men Xi Dragon, they became smaller than the Middle Jia Ma Long Xi Long.
The fossil skeleton of the Zhongjia Mamen Xilong was previously seen at the Shanghai Museum of Natural History, but last year because the exhibition expired, the skeleton was removed and now replaced with other fossils.
The two dinosaurs just introduced, one called Zhongjia Mamenxi and the other called Giant Ruyang Dragon, are the largest dinosaurs found in China.
So who was the biggest carnivorous dinosaur?
It was this dinosaur, Zhucheng Tyrannosaurus. When you hear the name of the tyrannosaurus rex, do you think of the Tyrannosaurus rex? This dinosaur is a close relative of Tyrannosaurus rex in China.
How big is it? Its body length is 11 meters, its height, that is, the height of the hips is 3.5 meters, equivalent to the height of two floors, and the weight is 7 tons.
It lived 70 million years ago at the end of the Cretaceous period in Zhucheng, Shandong Province. This is the largest carnivorous dinosaur ever found in China.
This is a photo of the skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus rex in Zhucheng.
How many dinosaur species have been found in China so far?
In December 2019, after statistics, there are now 322 species of dinosaurs found and named in China.
China's dinosaurs surpassed the United States, is now the world's largest number of dinosaurs found in the country, but also worthy of the name of the "first dinosaur country", so you can call China "dragon country".
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