A father and son decided to play a treasure-hunting game while hiking, and the “strange stone” that the 5-year-old boy picked up turned out to be a 500-million-year-old fossil.
Mr. Dương from Linyi City, Shandong Province, China, is an outdoor sports enthusiast. A few days ago, he took his 5-year-old son to hike near the Lang Gong Temple.
Upon reaching the summit, Mr. Dương noticed a large, unusual rock. Sensing something extraordinary, he observed it closely and speculated that it might be a fossil. Wanting to test their luck, he invited his son to play a game of “treasure hunt.”
Initially, he didn’t have high hopes, but unexpectedly, after about 7 to 8 minutes of searching, his son suddenly shouted: “Dad, I found it!”.
Mr. Dương rushed over, took a closer look, and discovered that inside were stones with intricate patterns. Having hiked many places and possessing some experience, Mr. Dương quickly took pictures of these findings and shared them online, hoping for confirmation.
What was thought to be just a game turned out to be a fossil discovery.
Shortly after, Professor Quách Dĩnh from the Institute of Geology and Paleontology at Linyi University confirmed that it was indeed a paleontological fossil. The location where it was found belonged to the Cambrian or Ordovician strata, dating back over 500 million years.
The fossilized creatures were trilobites, a type of arthropod. This type of paleontological fossil has been found in various places around Linyi, such as Jinan, Duy Phuong, and Lai Vu.
With Professor Quách Dĩnh’s confirmation, Mr. Dương was incredibly pleased, never expecting that their hiking trip would yield such a significant find for both him and his son. The online community also congratulated Mr. Dương and suggested that his son might develop an increased interest in archaeology after this discovery.
