Lufeng Dinosaur Museum

Lufeng Dinosaur Museum

Lufeng dinosaur museum is located in Lufeng County, covering an area of 3000 square meters. There are eight exhibition halls, which display the world's oldest dinosaur fossils, ancient ape fossils, Ming Dynasty porcelain and Qing Dynasty bronze Buddha statues. Among them, dinosaur fossils more than 100 million years ago and ancient ape fossils more than 8 million years ago are well-known at home and abroad. Therefore, Lufeng is known as the hometown of dinosaurs and Lama ancient ape.

Discovery of dinosaurs in Lufeng

In the winter of 1938, Professor Bian meinian, a Chinese geologist, went to Lufeng to investigate the geology. He wanted to find salt and gypsum deposits from the red soil layer eight meters thick. When Lufeng heard that the red soil layer was covered with keel, he carried out small-scale excavation and found many. Since then, Professor Yang Zhongjian, a paleozoologist in China, has published the Preliminary Research Report of Lufeng sauropod dinosaurs and other papers through more than 10 years of painstaking research, which has attracted the attention of paleontologists at home and abroad. Later, Lufeng's name was written into Paleontology and biology textbooks in many countries. In December 1984, the county cultural center excavated a complete dinosaur fossil about 6 meters long and more than 2 meters high in songjiapo, which is the most complete of the six dinosaur fossils excavated since the 1960s.

According to the research and analysis of scientists, Lufeng dinosaurs lived in the Late Triassic period 180 million years ago, and suddenly disappeared about 80 million years ago. It is an important part of the origin and evolution of early dinosaurs on the Mesozoic earth. Lufeng dinosaurs belong to two families of sauroposauridae and urosauridae, including at least eight species of Lufeng dinosaur, Yunnan dinosaur, Wulong dinosaur, Lugou dinosaur, Chinese Dinosaur and Dadi dinosaur. They are large and small in size, and have vegetarian and carnivorous eating habits. Lufeng dinosaur age is early and representative, which is precious fossil evidence to clarify the origin, evolution and development of dinosaurs.

Discovery of fossil hominids

In May 1975, farmers in shihuiba village of Lufeng County found a tooth fossil when digging lignite on the hillside of temple, 9 kilometers north of the county seat. It was identified as a paleoape tooth fossil of the early Pliocene, which attracted the attention of the biological circle of our country. In November of the same year, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yunnan Provincial Museum and County Cultural Center went to the site for excavation, and found a complete mandible and several single teeth of the ancient ape, which was identified as Xiwa type. In the spring of 1980, under the guidance of Professor Wu Rukang, a relatively complete skull fossil of Lama ape was discovered for the first time in shihuiba, with more than 200 teeth and more than 40 animal bones, which caused a shock in the paleontological circle at home and abroad. This is because the Rama ape fossils have been found in South Asia, East Africa, Kaiyuan, Yunnan Province and other places in the past, but they are relatively fragmented and sporadic. It is the first time that the abundant and complete fossil of Rama ape like Lufeng has been found at home and abroad.

The Rama ape fossil was first discovered in 1932 by American Lewis in the West Warwick mountains of India. It lived between 14 million and 8 million years ago. He named it Rama ape after the Indian God Rama, which means "light of hope". In the past 100 years, people have realized that man evolved from ape based on the discovery of a large number of ancient human fossils and the exploration of nature. The discovery of ancient ape fossils provides a more real scientific basis for the study of ape to man. Rama ape is a more advanced ape, is the direct ancestor of early human. Although there are differences in the characteristics of different regions and different types of Lama ape, they all have many characteristics of evolution from ape to human. Scientists unanimously classify Lama ape into Hominidae, which has great scientific research value.

Archaeological value

Archaeologists have found that Lufeng is not only the most abundant area where Lama ape skulls have been found at home and abroad, but also the only place in the world where Lama ape skulls have been found. From the skull of Lufeng Lama ape, we can see that the position of the foramen magnum is much more forward than other apes, the face is smaller than other apes, the brain is expanded, the brain volume is increased, the center of gravity of the whole head has moved to the bare place of the fulcrum occipitum, which shows that Lufeng Lama ape has been able to walk upright, and upright walking is a decisive step from ape to human. The buccal tooth crowns of the maxilla of the ancient ape are short and wide, and the canine teeth do not protrude out, which indicates that the function of feeding and attacking on the snout has obviously degenerated and replaced by gradually developed hands. The structure and shape of the whole skull is very similar to that of the early Homo erectus. The maxillary dental arch is parabolic, which is fundamentally different from the U-shaped dental arch of other apes, while the mandibular dental arch is regular arch, which is similar to that of early Homo erectus. All kinds of signs show that Lufeng Lama ape is a "growing man". It is of great historical value and scientific significance to clarify the theory of human origin and to explore the place and time of human origin.

Address: No.95, Jinshan South Road, Jinshan Town, Lufeng County, Chuxiong Prefecture

Longitude: 102.07615786791

Latitude: 25.141739384859

Tel: 0878-4122718

Ticket information: market price: 15.0 yuan

Chinese PinYin : Lu Feng Kong Long Bo Wu Guan