Exploring Prehistoric "Zoo" in Hezheng, China

On June 14th, accompanied by a tour guide, we entered the Hezheng Paleontology Fossil National Geopark in Gansu Province, China, and encountered ancient animals from millions of years ago.

Inside the Paleozoological Museum in the Geopark, various and unique fossils provide a strong visual impact while narrating the story of biological evolution.

The exhibition showcases a diverse range of herbivorous animals, such as odd-toed ungulates, even-toed ungulates, and proboscideans, demonstrating species diversity. The rich collection includes sculptures of carnivores like hyenas, canids, mustelids, and fierce and agile cats that are frozen in rocks alongside their prey, silently recounting the tragic history of reproduction, habitat, and extinction in the Hezheng region.

It is worth mentioning that the museum houses a series of fossil specimens of shovel-tusked elephants, showcasing the development of their skulls from infancy to old age. The size and characteristics of the skull fossils vary, providing a visual representation of shovel-tusked elephants at different stages of life, from three to four months old to over 40 years old.

According to reports, Hezheng Paleozoological Museum is the only museum in China dedicated to Late Cenozoic vertebrate mammal fossils. It has been awarded the National Museum's Top Ten Exhibition Excellence Award and is the only county-level museum selected as a second-class national museum. Currently, the museum has a collection of over 30,000 fossil specimens, belonging to more than 150 genera and species of animals across three classes and eight orders. The fossils span a time period of 30 million to 2 million years, and their abundance, diversity, and excellent preservation are rare in the world. The museum holds six world records: the unique Hezheng sheep, the largest site of three-toed horse fossils, the richest collection of shovel-tusked elephant fossils, the earliest woolly rhinoceros skull fossils, the largest Equus "Equus eisenmannae", and the largest hyena "giant hyena" in the world.

In the Hualin On-site Fossil Protection Building within the Geopark, the partially buried, pristine white shells in the soil carry information about life, bringing visitors closer to the prehistoric era.

The spiral-shaped Hualin On-site Fossil Protection Building is surrounded by green mountains. Entering the museum, the exhibition follows the concept of "the vertebrae of life, the world's extremes". The main exhibition area includes the Preface Hall, a large LED screen, the original burial area, geological profiles, and a fossil excavation experience zone. It primarily showcases the original burial state of the three-toed horse fossil animals, gradually revealing the history of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, changes in the ecological environment, and the evolution of ancient animal communities.

Hualin On-site Fossil Protection Building was built on the original burial and excavation areas of the three-toed horse animal community fossils, with an exposed area of 3,200 square meters. At the same time, it is the most abundant site for the three-toed horse animal community fossils within the Geopark and is considered a world-class geological relic with a history dating back 5 to 11 million years. In addition to the exhibition of fossil specimens, this place also preserves the original appearance and excavation process of the millions-year-old fossil burial, which is extremely precious.

It represents the fossil sites in the Hezheng region, characterized by not only a vast number of fossils, superior quality, and rich diversity but also a unique burial method known as rare red clay burial. It is praised by the paleontological community asthe "eastern gem and fossil treasury". (Wu Yuting)