NDTV.com
Shashank Shantanu
February 21, 2017
A total of 82 dinosaur fossil sites were discovered during a survey in China’s Zhejiang province.
China’s Zhejiang province may have been a real life Jurassic Park about 65 to 145 million years ago, according to scientists who found an assortment of dinosaur fossils, including eight new species of the prehistoric animals.
A total of 82 dinosaur fossil sites, with at least six dinosaur species and 25 types of fossil dinosaur eggs, were confirmed during the survey by a team of experts from the Zhejiang Institute of Hydrogeology and Engineering Geology and Zhejiang Museum of Natural History in China, between 2006 and 2013.
The survey covered an area of 11,000 square kilometres in Zhejiang. Scientists identified eight new species among the fossils.
“It has been proved that a large quantity of dinosaurs lived in Zhejiang during the Cretaceous period, about 65 million to 145 million years ago,” said Jin Xingsheng, deputy curator of Zhejiang Museum of Natural History.
“Compared with other southeastern provinces, Zhejiang has the largest amount of dinosaur fossils,” he added.
Scientists found that sedimentary rocks, where most dinosaur fossils were unearthed, were sandwiched between two layers of volcanic rocks, indicating vegetation was lush and suitable for dinosaurs in the early and middle Cretaceous period, the state-run news agency Xinhua reported.
The findings also indicate that the age of prehistoric creatures may have ended due to a catastrophe, an asteroid hit being the most likely reason as it can result in a series of sudden climate changes such as volcanic eruptions, crustal faults and generate radioactive substances that cause the dinosaurs to die out.
