Heyuan Museum

There is a dinosaur egg fossil exhibition hall in Heyuan Museum, which is located at the foot of Guifeng mountain on the Bank of Dongjiang River. A total of 109 nests of dinosaur egg fossils, 1068 in total, have been excavated in Heyuan City (the picture shows dinosaur egg fossils), the largest of which is 22 cm in diameter. The first is the concentration of unearthed fossils; the second is that there are three species, large, medium and small, which rank second in China in terms of species and quantity, second only to Henan Province; the third is that taking Dongjiang River as the boundary, the exposed fossils in Hedong are exposed, while those in Hexi are deep underground. All these fossils belong to the late Cretaceous period, which is more than 65 million years ago. In addition, three dinosaur skeletons have been found in Heyuan City and are now being excavated.

Heyuan Museum

synonym

Heyuan Museum generally refers to Heyuan Museum

Heyuan museum was established on December 31, 1982. In June 1988, Heyuan county was removed and built into a city. The museum was under the jurisdiction of Yuancheng District. After it was taken over by the municipal government in January 1993, it was renamed its current name. The Museum covers an area of 18000 square meters (including 14000 square meters of Guifeng tower protection area). The new building was built in October 1986 with a construction area of 1700 square meters.

In September 2018, after the museum self-evaluation application, the provincial museum industry organization evaluation, the National Museum Evaluation Committee organized experts to review, and reported to the State Administration of cultural relics for the record, China Museum Association decided to approve Heyuan Museum as the third batch of national second-class museums.

Development history

Heyuan museum was established on December 31, 1982. In June 1988, Heyuan county was removed and built into a city. The museum was under the jurisdiction of Yuancheng District. After it was taken over by the municipal government in January 1993, it was renamed its current name.

In particular, since March 1996, dinosaur egg fossils and dinosaur bone fossils have been unearthed frequently in the urban areas. Heyuan has become one of the areas with the largest number of dinosaur egg fossils, the most abundant varieties, and the best protected areas with "eggs" and "Dragons" in the world. It has been recognized as the "hometown of dinosaurs in southern China".

Heyuan museum was named "advanced collective unit of culture in Guangdong Province" in 1995 and "patriotic education base of Heyuan City" in 1996. Now it has become the main scenic spot of urban culture and tourism.

Heyuan is one of the few areas in the world with dinosaur eggs and bones. The fossil specimens on display in the exhibition of dinosaur egg fossils unearthed in Heyuan City have been identified by the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences: the dinosaur fossils found in Heyuan City are small carnivorous theropod dinosaur skeleton fossils about 70 million years ago. Since the discovery of the first dinosaur egg fossil in March 1996 in Heyuan City, dinosaur skeleton fossil has been found again, breaking the Convention of "there are eggs without dragons, there are dragons without eggs". This not only provides important information for the distribution and evolution of dinosaurs in the late Cretaceous, but also adds new tourism resources for Heyuan.

Collection

At present, there are 706 cultural relics in the collection, most of which are unearthed and collected in Heyuan county. Most of them are cultural relics with Hakka folk characteristics, mainly ceramic, woodcut and embroidery. In the museum, there is a cultural relic protection unit of Guangdong Province: Guifeng tower (Southern Song Dynasty) and its affiliated cultural relic "Jinhua Temple", which is a local history museum. The basic exhibitions are historical relics exhibition in Heyuan City, dinosaur fossil exhibition in Heyuan City, chrysanthemum fossil exhibition in Heyuan City and pictures exhibition of martyr Ruan Xiaoxian. The above exhibition and Guifeng pagoda Jinhua temple will be open all year round. The museum is evergreen all the year round, with "lovers tree", "banyan" and "dinosaur sculpture".

Dinosaur egg fossil

Since the discovery of dinosaur egg fossils in Heyuan City in March 1996 and the promulgation of the notice on the protection of dinosaur egg fossils, even primary school students in Heyuan City know that there are "treasures" in the land under their feet. 2、 In three years, 118 nests of 1073 dinosaur egg fossils have been found in more than 20 square kilometers of Heyuan suburbs. Two years ago, some experts predicted that dinosaur bone fossils might be found in Heyuan. For this reason, Huang Dong, director of Heyuan Museum, has dreamed of dinosaur ossification stone for many times in recent years. At noon on July 23, 1999, Huang Dong's dream finally came true: citizen Lin Dehe reported the discovery of several bone fossils in a Huangsha village 5 kilometers away in the suburb. Huang Dong rushed to the scene, raised his hand to dig out a sensational "news".

Dinosaur skeleton fossils

An accidental discovery by Lin Deru, a citizen, has fulfilled the dream that Heyuan people have dinosaur eggs and dinosaur bone fossils at the same time. At noon on July 23, 1999, citizen Lin Deru found several scattered bones and fossils in Huangni mountain, Huangsha village, Gaotang, Dongpu, Yuancheng District. After receiving the report, the staff of the Municipal Museum promptly reported to the municipal Party committee and the municipal government.

On August 15, Mr. Dong Zhiming, a researcher of Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and a world-famous expert on dinosaur fossils, identified the dinosaur fossils discovered in Heyuan as small carnivorous theropod dinosaur bones about 70 million years ago.

Dong Zhiming, an expert in Paleovertebrate and Paleoanthropology, said that according to the analysis of the unearthed fossil specimens, it belongs to the theropod dinosaur, which is small and about two or three meters long. These dinosaurs lived in the late Cretaceous, about 70 million years ago. It walks on two legs and eats meat. It's light and flexible. But it is not sure whether it is a new species of this kind of dinosaurs, which will not be determined until all the fossils have been excavated.

Turtle fossils

Following the amazing discovery of dinosaur skeleton fossils, a new group of vertebrates has been added in Heyuan. On September 4, 1999, turtle fossils were found in Heyuan City. This is a late Cretaceous turtle fossil. It may be a terrestrial tortoise, an ancient vertebrate living at the same time as the dinosaurs discovered, about 70 million years ago. The discovery of these fossils provides physical evidence for the study of animal distribution in the late Cretaceous and directly enriches the tourism resources of Heyuan.

Ammonite fossil community

This magical ammonite fossil site was excavated in zengkeng, Shuangjiang, Heyuan City. Experts said that the individual diameter of this ammonite fossil community is generally 1-10 cm, and its ammonite is the largest in China.

Ammonite, an ancient marine invertebrate, was extinct along with dinosaurs 65 million years ago. The ammonite in zengkeng, Shuangjiang, Heyuan, lived in the lower Jurassic period about 1-85-1-9 billion years ago. It has a beautiful shell and swims in the shallow waters of Lingnan. Similar to squid and Nautilus, it hunts marine animals with tentacles.

Visit information

Address: Nandi Road

Address: Nandi Road, Yuancheng District, Heyuan City, Guangdong Province

Longitude: 114.70220233293

Latitude: 23.727203409429

Tel: 0762-3333596

Opening hours: all year round

Chinese PinYin : He Yuan Bo Wu Guan