Source: Qinhuangdao Tourism Culture Release
Agkistrodon fossil was found in Shanyangzhai Village of Qinhuangdao City, which is the first discovery in Asia.
The team of Li Yongxiang from the Department of Geology of Northwest University and the researchers of the Institute of ancient vertebrate and Human of the Chinese Academy of Sciences recently published their research results - six species of snake fossils were found in Shanyangzhai Village, Haigang District, Qinhuangdao City, Hebei Province, which are about 200,000 to 22,000 years ago, belong to the middle and late Pleistocene, among them, the fossils of agkistrodon, a kind of poisonous snake, were first discovered in Asia, and the first poisonous snake fossils discovered in China.
Photos of the poisonous snake fossils taken under the microscope.
(photo provided by the respondents)
Snake fossils are very rare,
And the fossils of the poisonous snake are the first discovery in China.
Snake fossils found in China include
Elaphe found in Zhoukoudian of Beijing and Fanchang of Anhui ,
And homalopsid found in Shanwang of Shandong and Luonan of Shaanxi.
In addition to these two snakes’ fossils,
The agkistrodon fossils were also discovered for the first time.
Snake fossils are very rare
Because their bones are small and difficult to store.
Li Yongxiang is introducing the characteristics of snake fossils.
(Photo by reporter Zhang xiao)
“As a the direct evidence, the fossils can prove that the agkistrodon should originate in China.” Li Yongxiang said, adding that the one of the two kinds of agkistrodon fossils discovered this time has been identified in the middle Pleistocene, about 200,000 years ago, with the length of a single body vertebra of 4.3 mm; the other was in late Pleistocene, about 22,000 years ago, with the length of a single body vertebra of 3.8 mm.
The discovery of the agkistrodon fossils is of great significance in research, and this is not the first fossil discovery in Shanyangzhai Village.
Shanyangzhai Village is rich in fossil remains.
In June 1981, people found a large number of mammalian fossils in a cracked karst cave in the Xiaonanshan quarry in Shanyangzhai Village
The cave is divided into two parts connected to the north and the south. The cave in the north are smaller, and the mammalian fossils found in the upper layer are mostly carnivorous including the Zhili wolves; the lower layer are mostly odd-hoofed animals including rhinoceros. The south cave is large, mainly filled by cave breccia, mixed with a small number of mammalian fossils, bone debris and a very small amount of charcoal.
At the bottom of the two connected caves, there are new caves formed later with stalactites on the top wall of the new cave, which contain mammalian fossil fragments. A small amount of mammalian fossils accumulate in small limestone fissures at approximately the same horizontal position about 5 meters south of the two connected caves. For the accumulation of the above caves, two excavations were carried out. According to the expert's identification, there were a total of 32 kinds of animal fossils including mammalian fossils of 7 orders, 21 families, 13 genera, and 12 species, 1 bird class, and 1 arthropods found in Shanyangzhai, The era is the late Zhoukoudian, that is, the late Middle Pleistocene, about 200,000 years ago.
The Zhili wolf fossil unearthed from Shanyangzhai Village.
(Picture extracted from Decrypt Qinhuangdao)
Then, what animals bred in Shanyangzhai Village 200,000 years ago, and what was their living environment like?
Scientific research has found that various animals in Shanyangzhai lived under different conditions. Bears and tigers lived in the forest. Cows, rabbits and most rodents lived on the grassland. Deer and elks lived on the border of the forest and grassland. The frontal rhinoceros lived in the waterside grassland, and chiropterans, flying birds and isopods rarely found in fossils lived in caves. These animals are all northern animals that didn’t have the characteristics of fauna of South China. Herbivores, insectivores, and carnivores constituted a complete food chain system between animals. The extant species of Roche alpine rats live in the plateau of about 3,000 meters above sea level on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, which reflects the fact that the region has gradually evolved from a mild and humid deciduous broad-leaved forest climate to a cool and dry climate.
At that time, the main plant types of Xiaonanshan included elm, linden, oak, cedar, pine, larch, the grass family, chrysanthemum, goosefoots, wormwood, sedge, and cypress, which is roughly consistent with the type of sporopollen in the secondary river terraces of Erdaohe River, reflecting that the vegetation at that time was dominated by deciduous broad-leaved forests, mixed with conifers and herbs. Some of these plants prefer warm and wet climate, while others prefer cool and dry. The vegetation conditions at that time ensured the primary food needs of the entire fauna and provided shelter and playground for the fauna. This has been proved in the sporopollen analysis experiment of fossil fillings accumulated in the caves in the north of Xiaonanshan Hill.
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