A 5-year-old boy climbed a mountain and picked up a “strange stone”. Expert identification confirmed that it was a 500-million-year-old paleontological fossil | CTWANT | LINE TODAY

A man named Yang from Linyi City, Shandong Province, took his 5-year-old son to climb a mountain last week. On the way, he saw a large piece of shale next to him. “I told my son that there might be fossils here. After looking for 7 or 8 minutes, my son shouted that he had found it,” he said. ! I went over to take a look, and there were all fossils with strange patterns.” After identification, experts believe that these are paleontological fossils. The location where the fossils were found should belong to the Cambrian or Ordovician strata, dating back more than 500 million years ago.

“Peninsula Morning News” reported that Yang Nan said, “Last Sunday afternoon, I took my 5-year-old son to climb the hill near Langgong Temple. After reaching the mountain, I saw a large shale next to it. My first feeling was, This kind of thing may contain fossils, because I have been playing outdoors for a long time and have experience. I told my son that there may be fossils in this place. Let’s go look for them and try our luck to see if we can find them. baby. “

Yang Nan recalled, “After searching for about 7 or 8 minutes, my son shouted to me, ‘Dad, I found it!’ My son was very excited at the time and shouted loudly, so I picked up the camera and took a picture. Then I went over to take a look. After a while, I was very surprised! That piece of fossils are all full of strange patterns.” After identification, Guo Ying, a professor at the Institute of Geology and Paleontology of Linyi University, believed that these were indeed paleontological fossils. The area should belong to the Cambrian strata, dating back 500 million years. for many years.

Guo Ying pointed out, “Fragments of trilobites can be seen in the fossils. Trilobites are arthropods. After being broken into pieces, the body is divided into segments. This is also commonly known as the swallow stone. In fact, it is one of the trilobites. One section looks like a swallow. This kind of paleontological fossil has also been found in the entire Linyi area, including the surrounding Laiwu, Jinan, Weifang, Rizhao and other places.”

The report mentioned that researchers from the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, systematically studied a unique buried fossil library of the Cambrian period in North China about 504 million years ago in 2022, and named it the “Linyi Fauna.” The discovery has rich features, finely preserved fossils and a unique geographical location, which provides a new window for in-depth understanding of the early radiation differentiation, migration and diffusion, community structure and biological paleogeography of animals after the Cambrian explosion.

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