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Nanxiong Fossils of Ancient Extinct Lives

 

Nanxiong City, located in Guangdong Province of China's south area, is one of the regions buried with the most abundant dinosaur fossils and dinosaur eggs in China. It is evaluated by some geologists that, the succession of strata in the basin just pass through the margin between Mesozoic and Cenozoic, becoming the optimal place for research of the three extinction events happened during cretaceous (tertiary) period.

 Nanshiungosaurus brevisinus Dong     

Nanshiungosaurus brevisinus Dongfound in the place is well known for their specially structured waist. They have a long and flat skull, a large and edged snout and sharp teeth. It is estimated that they lived by lakes or rivers before their death, feeding on fish.

 Microhadrosaurus nanshiungensis Dong   

This is a kind of hadrosaur with smaller body conformation. It is estimated based on fossil specimen that, it is the smallest species in ChineseDinosaurian, with a body length of not more than 3 meters.

More than 200 eggs ofMicrohadrosaurus nanshiungensis Donghave been dug out over the years in Nanxiong. The shape of these dinosaur eggs can be divided into two groups, i.e., circular and oblong. The individual size is different from each other. There are 2 or 3 eggs, to 10 or even more than 30 eggs in each nest. Analyzing on samples of these dinosaur eggs shows that, their eggshells were getting thinner and more fragile as a result of shortage of microelement, which is significant for the study of the dinosaurs' extinction reason.

The discovery of the oryctocoenose of ancient extinct lives in Nanxiong fills up the gap in scientific research of terrain stratum in Paleocene epoch in China and shows that China is the nation possessing the most integral stratigraphic sections of Paleocene epoch in the world at present.

 
 
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