Category Archives: CHINA

Paleonursery offers a detailed glimpse at life 518 million years ago

Paleonursery offers a detailed glimpse at life 518 million years ago

Paleonursery offers a detailed glimpse at life 518 million years ago

Fossilized specimens of thousands of undersea animals buried under a sedimentary avalanche 518 million years ago have been found near Kunming, China, many of which are of new species.

Paleontologists who found the fossil trove believe they’ve unearthed a Cambrian-era ‘paleonursery,’ according to their report in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution, with more than half of the specimens juveniles.

The Haiyan lagerstätte—from the German for storage place,’ it refers to a sedimentary deposit with exceptionally well-preserved fossils—contains approximately 2,800 specimens from at least 118 species, including predecessors to modern-day insects, worms, crabs, jellyfish, sponges, and trilobites.

There were also specimens with preserved eggs, larvae, and appendages intact and the inner soft tissues still visible.

Of the species found, 17 were previously unknown species.

Fossil of a juvenile arthropod, Isoxys auritus, preserving the eyes and internal soft tissues.

“It’s just amazing to see all these juveniles in the fossil record,” said Julien Kimmig, collections manager at the Earth and Mineral Sciences Museum & Art Gallery, Penn State. “Juvenile fossils are something we hardly see, especially from soft-bodied invertebrates.”

The Cambrian Period, which lasted 541 million to 485 million years ago, witnessed unprecedented climatic and biological changes, including the Cambrian explosion—the planet’s fastest and most extensive diversity of life in history.

There is a comprehensive fossil record from that time period when life existed solely in the water, but little of it depicts juvenile animals.

According to the researchers, each sediment layer in the lagerstätte represents a distinct ‘burial event,’ and while more recent strata have yielded some results, none equal the richness of the lowest level. It is unknown what triggered the burial event that wiped out the specimens at that level.

According to the team, it might have been caused by a fast change in oxygen levels or a storm that caused thick sludge to ‘wash down a hill and bury everything in its path.’

It may have killed them, but it preserved them so well that they are exposing bodily parts never seen before, including entire three-dimensional eyes.

According to the researchers, scientists may utilize CT scanning on these 3D characteristics to rebuild the fossils and extract even more information from the remains.

Scientists will be able to use this collection to study how these ancient animals developed from the larval to the adult stage.

Fossil of a juvenile arthropod, Leanchoilia illecebrosa, showing fine anatomical details of the appendages and preserving the gut tract.

“We’ll see how different body parts grew over time, which is something we currently do not know for most of these groups,” Julien Kimmig said. “And these fossils will give us more information on their relationships to modern animals. We will see if how these animals develop today is similar to how they developed 500 million years ago, or if something has changed throughout time.”

The fossils will also allow researchers to analyze how animals acted 500 million years ago, when the planet was somewhat warmer than it is today, and use it as a proxy for where the world is heading in terms of animal behavior in a warmer climate.

“In this deposit, we found the ancestors to most modern animals, both marine and terrestrial,” Julien Kimmig said. “If the Haiyan Lagerstätte is actually a paleonursery, it means that this type of animal behavior has not changed much in 518 million years.”

Xianfeng Yang, a paleobiologist at Yunnan University, China, led a team of Chinese researchers that collected the fossils at the research site. Additional contributors to this study include Dayou Zhai and Yu Liu, Yunnan University; and Shanchi Peng, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy at the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, and the Key Research Program of the Institute of Geology & Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

House remains dating back 5,500 yrs found in China’s Shanxi

House remains dating back 5,500 yrs found in China’s Shanxi

Archaeologists have unearthed the foundations of two houses dating back 5,500 years in north China’s Shanxi Province.

House remains dating back 5,500 yrs found in China's Shanxi
This aerial photo shows a house foundation that covers around 30 square meters unearthed at an archaeological site in Xinghuacun Township in Fenyang City, north China’s Shanxi Province.

The house foundations were found at an archaeological site in Xinghuacun Township in Fenyang City and traced back to the middle period of the Yangshao culture, according to the provincial institute of cultural relics and archaeology.

The Yangshao culture, dating back 5,000 to 7,000 years, was a Neolithic culture that originated along the middle reaches of the Yellow River.

The two house foundations, both halfway underground, were found in varying sizes. The larger site covers about 39 square meters, and the smaller one covers around 30 square meters.

Fragments of various artifacts, including millstone, sharp-bottomed bottles, and painted pottery pots, were unearthed at the larger site. In addition, the smaller site shows signs of burning.

“The discovery of two house foundations is of great significance to the study of the structure, layout, construction technology, and function of houses in the middle period of the Yangshao culture,” said Wang Pujun, the director of the archaeological project. 

Bronze Age Ice Skates Found in China

Bronze Age Ice Skates Found in China

The roughly 3,500-year-old bone ice skates found in Xinjiang are almost exactly like prehistoric ice skates found in northern Europe.

Archaeologists in China have unearthed 3,500-year-old ice skates crafted from animal bone in the country’s western Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, a mountainous area that some archaeologists think was the birthplace of skiing.

These ice skates, the oldest ever found in China,  were made from the bones of oxen and horses, according to a translated statement. They were found in a tomb in the Gaotai Ruins, about 240 miles (385 kilometers) west of the regional capital Ürümqi, archaeologists with the Xinjiang Uyghur autonomous regional government said at a news event on Feb. 27.

It’s not known if the skates were used for hunting or for regular travel. They consist of a straight piece of bone with holes at both ends so they could be strapped to footwear. The resulting “blade” is very flat compared with modern skates, but it formed a cutting edge that allowed the wearer to glide across the ice.

Archaeologist Ruan Qiurong, of the Xinjiang Institute of Cultural Relics and Archeology, told reporters that the newly-found skates are almost exactly the same as ice skates from prehistoric Europe, which can be interpreted as new evidence of a theorized exchange of information between the ancient west and east in the Bronze Age. They are also rare physical material for studying the origins of ice skating in China, he said.

Bronze Age ruins

The skates were found in tombs at the Jirentai Goukou archaeological site in China’s Xinjiang, which archaeologists think was inhabited by people from the Andronovo culture of cattle-herders in the late Bronze Age.

The Goaotai Ruins where the ice skates were found are part of the Jirentai Goukou (Jartai Pass) archeological site, which was discovered in 2015. The site comprises an ancient settlement and a nearby tomb complex within a high platform surrounded by stone slabs. 

Archaeologists think the site dates from about 3,600 years ago, when the region was occupied by people from the Andronovo culture of cattle-herders, which also occupied parts of Central Asia and the far east of Europe in the late Bronze Age.

The tomb platform is one of the best-preserved Bronze Age tomb buildings in Xinjiang and possibly on the Eurasian steppe, the archaeologists said.

The tombs are thought to have belonged to a noble family among the early cattle-herding people of the area, Qiurong noted; and that the excavations there have revealed important aspects of their burial rites, beliefs and social structures.

Other features of the tombs, including a ray-like structure made from 17 lines of stones, indicate a possible belief in sun-worship, he told the Indo-Asian News Service in 2020.

Wheels and wagons

Buried wooden wagons found at archaeological site in China’s Xinjiang.
Bronze Age Ice Skates Found in China
Overhead view of buried wooden wagons found at archaeological site in China’s Xinjiang.

The archaeologists also found the remains of dozens of wooden wagons or carts that appear to have been used to build the tomb platform. They include 11 solid wooden wheels and more than 30 wooden parts, including rims and shafts. 

“We initially judged that [the wagons] were used to build the high platform around the tombs, and then dismantled and deliberately buried,” Qiurong said at the news conference.

The bone skates found at the Goaotai Ruins are not the oldest on record, but are surprisingly similar to 5,000-year-old skates found in Finland, and similar ice skates have been found at archaeological sites throughout northern Europe.

Scientists think the Finnish skates were used by ancient people in the mostly-flat regions of southern Finland, which is dotted with tens of thousands of small lakes that freeze over in the winter.

China’s mountainous Xinjiang region might also be the birthplace of skiing, according to The New York Times

Ancient cave paintings in northern Xinjiang’s Altai Mountains, which some archaeologists think may be 10,000 years old, depict hunters on what appear to be skis. But other archaeologists dispute the claim, saying the cave paintings can’t be reliably dated.

6,000-year-old defensive trench unearthed in China’s Henan

6,000-year-old defensive trench unearthed in China’s Henan

A defensive trench dating back around 6,000 years has been discovered at a relics site in central China’s Henan Province, according to the municipal institute of archaeology of Luoyang City.

6,000-year-old defensive trench unearthed in China's Henan

The semi-annular trench, located at the Suyang relics site in Yiyang County, was dug manually, and the shape and structure reflected the powerful and orderly social organization ability and technical level at that time, said Ren Guang, who is in charge of the excavation of the site.

Based on unearthed relics and the accumulated layers in the trench, archaeologists believe that the trench had gone through three periods of the Yangshao Culture, dating back 5,000 to 7,000 years.

By the late period of the Yangshao Culture, the trench had probably lost its defensive function, as a number of house sites, ash pits, and production and household relics from this period were found on both sides of the trench, Ren said.

Rows of wooden posts that may have been used to protect the trench reflected the re-use of the abandoned facility by people at that time, Ren added.

Pottery, stone, jade, bone and mussel wares were also found at the site, as well as a few well-preserved remains of carbonized corn and millet.

Archaeologists initiated the Suyang relics site excavation work in early 2021.

2,400-Year-Old Toilet Found in China

2,400-Year-Old Toilet Found in China

2,400-Year-Old Toilet Found in China
Broken parts of the toilet, including a bent pipe, were unearthed from the Yueyang archaeological site in Xi’an, Shaanxi province, last summer and pieced together for months before researchers released details on Wednesday.

A manual flush toilet, dating back 2,400 years, has piqued the interest of archaeologists who are trying to find out what people ate during that time by analyzing soil samples collected from it.

Broken parts of the toilet, including a bent pipe, were unearthed from the Yueyang archaeological site in Xi’an, Shaanxi province, last summer and pieced together for months before researchers released details on Wednesday.

Discovered amid the ruins of a palace in the ancient Yueyang city, the toilet is believed to have been used by Qin Xiaogong (381-338 BC) or his father Qin Xian’gong (424-362 BC) of the Qin Kingdom during the Warring States Period (475-221 BC), or by Liu Bang, the first emperor of the Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 220). The palace was possibly used for administrative affairs.

A “luxury object” such as a flush toilet would only be used by very high-ranking members of the society during that time, according to Liu Rui, a researcher at the Institute of Archaeology at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, who was part of the excavation team at Yueyang.

“It is the first and only flush toilet to be ever unearthed in China. Everybody at the site was surprised, and then we all burst into laughter,” he said.

The toilet bowl was placed indoors, with the pipe leading to an outdoor pit, he said, adding that servants probably poured water into the toilet every time it was used.

Liu said the upper half of the flush toilet was not found during the excavation and hence, experts cannot confirm whether its users sat on it or squatted over it.

However, based on previous records about toilets, such as stone carvings on the tombs of royal members during the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 24), they likely squatted over it.

“The flush toilet is concrete proof of the importance the ancient Chinese attached to sanitation,” Liu said, adding that there were few records of indoor toilets in ancient times.

Before this toilet was unearthed, the first manual flush toilet was believed to have been invented by John Harington for Queen Elizabeth I in the 16th century.

Yueyang was the capital of the Qin Kingdom for about 35 years and also the first capital city of the Han Dynasty, during which palaces were demolished to make way for farmlands.

Since 2012, archaeologists have been conducting large-scale excavations in Yueyang, which is today part of Xi’an’s Yanliang district.

The toilet was found at the No 3 site.

“Besides all written records, we can learn more about social reforms and systems of the kingdom by digging deeper into ancient palaces,” Liu said.

The partially restored toilet is now a key to further archaeological research on Yueyang.

Experts are analyzing the soil inside, hoping to find traces of human feces and learn about the eating habits of ancient people. So far, the soil samples have only yielded traces of fertilizers used by farmers during Han Dynasty.

Anomalies Detected in Walls Surrounding Ancient Capital in China

Anomalies Detected in Walls Surrounding Ancient Capital in China

Anomalies Detected in Walls Surrounding Ancient Capital in China
Muon scans are helping to find flaws and archeological surprises inside an ancient fortress wall in the Chinese city of Xi’an, which has grown and modernized since the wall was built nearly 650 years ago.

For nearly 650 years, the fortress walls in the Chinese city of Xi’an have served as a formidable barrier around the central city.

At 12 meters high and up to 18 meters thick, they are impervious to almost everything — except subatomic particles called muons.

Now, thanks to their penetrating abilities, muons may be key to ensuring that the walls that once protected the treasures of the first Ming Dynasty — and are now a national architectural treasure in their own right — stand for centuries more.

A refined detection method has provided the highest-resolution muon scans yet produced of any archaeological structure, researchers report in the Jan. 7 Journal of Applied Physics.

The scans revealed interior density fluctuations as small as a meter across inside one section of the Xi’an ramparts.

The fluctuations could be signs of dangerous flaws or “hidden structures archaeologically interesting for discovery and investigation,” says nuclear physicist Zhiyi Liu of Lanzhou University in China.

In this image, muons have revealed density anomalies in a section of the Xi’an fortress walls. All colors in this plot indicate places where densities are lower than average for the structure, with the bluer portions showing where density is lowest.

Muons are like electrons, only heavier. They rain down all over the planet, produced when charged particles called cosmic rays hit the atmosphere.

Although muons can travel deep into earth and stone, they are scattered or absorbed depending on the material they encounter. Counting the ones that pass through makes them useful for studying volcano interiors, scanning pyramids for hidden chambers and even searching for contraband stashed in containers impervious to X-rays (SN: 4/22/22).

Though muons stream down continuously, their numbers are small enough that the researchers had to deploy six detectors for a week at a time to collect enough data for 3-D scans of the rampart.

It’s now up to conservationists to determine how to address any density fluctuations that might indicate dangerous flaws, or historical surprises, inside the Xi’an walls.

China’s Mysterious “Heavenly Pit”: The World’s Deepest Sinkhole

China’s Mysterious “Heavenly Pit”: The World’s Deepest Sinkhole

First discovered by specialists in 1994, the world’s deepest sinkhole can be found in Fengjie County, Chongqing Municipality, China. Xiaozhai Tiankeng, or the Xiaozhai Heavenly Pit, measures roughly 537 meters (1,762 feet) in diameter and sinks between 511 and 662 meters (1,667-2,172 feet) into the Earth.

China's Mysterious "Heavenly Pit": The World's Deepest Sinkhole
The hole is so vast you can skydive straight into it.

With near vertical walls, the volume of this momentous geological feature is a whopping 119.349 million cubic meters (around 4.2 billion cubic feet). During heavy rains, a waterfall can sometimes be seen cascading down the hole’s steep walls.

The structure is double nested, meaning it’s comprised of two distinct “bowls” dissecting it into two layers, with each bowl measuring over 300 meters (984 feet) deep.

The Difeng cave, which the sinkhole sits atop, was formed by a powerful underground river. This river can now be seen in the depths of the pit where it carries clear water through the inner cave systems.

The river runs for approximately 8.5 kilometers (5.3 miles) from the underground Tianjing fissure gorge before reaching daylight at the vertical cliff of the Migong River where the underground water system forms a 46-meter (151-foot) high waterfall.

There are 1,285 species of registered plant in the depths of the Xiaozhai sinkhole, creating its own thriving, unique, and rare ecosystem. Ginkgo biloba, a rare species of tree, can be found living in the pit, as well as rare animal species like the clouded leopard, of which there are estimated to be fewer than 10,000 in the wild. 

Found in a large karst area, the sinkhole is comprised of Triassic limestone found in thick pure blocks. It is believed to have formed gradually throughout the last 128,000 years, making it relatively young in age when compared to other sinkholes in the area.

In fact, China is home to a number of sinkholes, referred to generally as “tiankeng”. The word tiankeng means “heavenly pit” or “sky hole” in Chinese, and refers to a very specific group of geological structures.

To be a tiankeng, the sinkhole must be at least 100 meters (328 feet) deep and wide, with a river flowing through the bottom. All tiankeng are comprised of carbonate rock, with the exception of two Venezuelan structures that consist of sandstone. They’re formed through a karst process when their composition is carbonate rock, and a suffusion process when made of sandstone.

The conditions required to form a tiankeng are very specific, making their formation rare.

The rock must be above sea level, and be thick with no layers of impurities. Heavy rain is also required to form these structures, which in turn helps form their underground rivers.

Although the term refers to any sinkhole within these criteria, of the 75 identified, 50 of the largest are found in China, hence the Chinese term becoming the commonplace name for such structures.

Archaeological Treasure Trove! 21 Royal Han Tombs Unearthed in China

Archaeological Treasure Trove! 21 Royal Han Tombs Unearthed in China

Photo from the Institute of Archaeology at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences via Xinhua

Along a mountainside in China, a collection of tombs with a potentially regal past lay buried for millennia—but not anymore.

Archaeologists excavating an archaeological site in Changsha unearthed 21 vertical pit tombs containing over 200 artifacts, the Institute of Archaeology at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said in a Tuesday, Jan. 10 news release via Xinhua, China’s state-affiliated news outlet.

Many of the tombs were found side-by-side, aerial photos of the site show. On one end of the site, three tombs are in a row. On the other end, four tombs are lined up together. Pairs of tombs may have been the joint burial of a husband and wife, the release said.

A tomb filled with grave goods unearthed at the Changsha site.

All of the tombs are about the same age, dating back 2,000 years to the Western Han Dynasty, the release said.

The Western Han Dynasty was the earlier half of the Han dynasty and lasted from about 200 B.C. to 25 A.D., according to Britannica. 

Because of the particular arrangement and similar age of the burials, archaeologists concluded the collection of tombs is likely a family buried together in an ancient mausoleum.

The tombs were found on a mountainside near a royal tomb, the Taohualing Han Tomb, and a burial area.

Considering this proximity, the 21 tombs may be the royal family, archaeologists said.

Archaeological Treasure Trove! 21 Royal Han Tombs Unearthed in China
The ruins of a double layer tomb.

One of the rare tombs unearthed in Changsha had relatively complete traces of an outer coffin shaped like “Ⅱ” or like double ‘I’s, the release said.

A line of five decaying pillars was also found in the tomb, photos show. These ruins indicate the tomb might be a double layer structure, a tomb structure rarely found in the Hunan province.

The collection of tombs can be grouped into two types: tombs with passageways and tombs without, archaeologists said. The tombs mainly contained pottery artifacts, researchers said.

However, also unearthed were: two iron relics, walls covered in glaze, a mineral known as talc, and a tan-colored talc disk with a rhombus and circle pattern. Photos show the talc disk. 

The talc disk, or bi, found in one of the tombs.

In addition, archaeologists found coins, pottery stoves, pots, and utensils at the site, according to a news release from the Hunan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology.

Other sections of the Changsha archaeological site have not yet been excavated but may contain more findings, Hunan officials said. Changsha is the capital of Hunan Province and about 665 miles southwest of Shanghai.