What seemed like ordinary stones, an old farmer sold them at a very low price. Unbeknownst to him, these were “national treasures,” regarded as “treasures” by archaeologists and history experts. This discovery sent shockwaves throughout China at the time.
Accidental Discovery of a Rare “National Treasure” in China
The story goes that when a mountainous district in Hubei Province, China, was hit by a major flood, a large amount of earth and rocks from the Qinglong Mountain fell down, leaving the farmer’s orange fields in disarray and causing significant damage.
Days later, once things returned to normal, the farmer named Zhu Tianyi, along with his relatives, went to the orange fields to tend to the crops and clean up.
After the first few strikes of his hoe, Zhu Tianyi discovered a strange oval stone, about the size of a bowl, milky white but incredibly lightweight.
Image: Sohu
The farmer found these stones peculiar and collected them to take home. After some time, he forgot about their existence.
A year later, in 1996, a trader from Henan Province visited Zhu Tianyi’s village to buy oranges. Unfortunately, his vehicle got stuck in a mud pit. Zhu Tianyi suddenly remembered the strange stones at home and ran back to retrieve some to place under the car’s tires.
Knowing the value of these stones, the trader secretly took a few home. Soon after, he returned to the village, but this time, his target was the unusual stones. He negotiated with Zhu Tianyi and bought each one for 70 cents.
Seeing that selling stones brought in some money, Zhu Tianyi gathered all the stones he had collected and sold them for a considerable sum.
This news quickly spread throughout the village. The villagers, inspired by Zhu Tianyi’s success, took their hoes to the mountains in search of unusual stones to sell to the trader.
A village official became suspicious and reported the matter to experts from the local cultural heritage department, stating that someone was buying “local eggs” (as the villagers called them).
The cultural heritage department then informed an expert from the Cultural Relics Bureau, named Wang Zhenghua, to investigate the situation.
With his trained eye, he turned pale and told the villagers: “These are dinosaur egg fossils, a national treasure!”
After the archaeological team arrived at the scene, they found traces of several dinosaur nests formed from red clay, surrounded by many pieces of eggshell.
A Discovery that Shook the World
This discovery revealed a finding that shocked both China and the world: “Dinosaur egg fossils found in Hubei.”
According to measurements and identifications by experts, these dinosaur egg fossils were confirmed to originate from the Hugeng Formation during the Late Cretaceous Period of the Mesozoic Era, dating back 67 to 135 million years.
Dinosaur egg fossils are protected as “national treasures.” (Image: Hubei Province website, China).
Further archaeological investigations revealed that the area containing the dinosaur egg fossils spans an area of 4.2 km2. All nests were laid by at least five different species of dinosaurs. This is the most concentrated, diverse, and largest dinosaur egg fossil site in China at the time.
At the end of July 1997, three dinosaur skeleton fossils of Ornithopod from the Late Cretaceous, around 70 million years ago, were discovered in a village 55 km from Qinglong Mountain. Once revealed, it once again sent shockwaves throughout China and the world. Two major discoveries made Hubei the only location in the world to find both dinosaur eggs and bones.
The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) stated that since the Hubei dinosaur egg fossil group was discovered in early 1995, many leading experts from the China University of Geosciences (Wuhan), the National Geological Museum, the Institute of Paleontology, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences have come to examine and confirm it.
CAS indicated that this dinosaur egg fossil group is a rare and irreplaceable geological heritage.
After news of the “national treasure” broke, the price of each dinosaur egg fossil in the black market skyrocketed: from 70 cents to 800 RMB each.
Due to the high demand, the illegal digging of dinosaur egg fossils surged, despite the archaeological experts’ efforts to protect the site. The thieves operated very discreetly, often only digging at night.
To combat this, the Hubei government established the Qinglongshan Dinosaur Fossil Nature Reserve and constructed a surrounding fence.
Dinosaur Museum. (Image: Sohu).
Dinosaur egg fossils are preserved and displayed at the Dinosaur Museum. (Image: Hubei Province website, China).
The official website of Hubei Province states that the Qinglongshan Reserve is an area affected by many tectonic and thermal metamorphic processes, forming steep mountain peaks, streams, waterfalls, flowers, and unique vegetation, along with many natural caves and geologically significant sites.
According to the latest survey by related geological experts, there are over 2,000 dinosaur egg fossils on the surface of Qinglong Mountain alone. It can be said that the dinosaur egg fossil nests in Hubei, China, are rich and exceptionally rare worldwide.
Inside the Dinosaur Museum. (Image: Sohu).
Therefore, the local government has invested 50 million RMB to build a Dinosaur Museum, covering an area of 1,200 square meters, near Qinglong Mountain. This museum tells visitors fascinating stories about dinosaurs from the past, hoping to raise public awareness about the preservation of dinosaur egg fossils and thus reduce and ultimately end the illegal excavation of fossilized eggs.
Currently, Chinese experts continue to search for dinosaur-related fossils in this area.
