Linxia short story 600 words

The Linxia Basin is located on the northeast edge of the Tibetan Plateau, where the Late Cenozoic stratigraphy has developed and is rich in mammal fossils. Since the 1950s, the area has been rich in "dragon bones", which are actually large mammal fossils used as traditional Chinese medicines, but unfortunately they are seldom used as materials for scientific research. Recently, we have found a large number of mammal fossils in various layers from the Late Oligocene to the Early Pleistocene, including the giant rhinoceros fauna in the Late Oligocene, the shovel-toothed elephant fauna in the Middle Miocene, the three-toed horse fauna in the Late Miocene, and the real horse fauna in the Early Pleistocene, with the three-toed horse fauna being the richest one, which is represented by weasels, saber-toothed tigers, hyenas, quadruple-pronged toothed elephants, three-toothed horses, rhinoceros, archipelagic hogs, giraffe, musk oxen, and antelopes. and antelope. The fossils of the three-toed horse fauna in the Linxia Basin exceed in quantity and quality not only the famous fossil localities of Baode in Shanxi Province and Fugu in Shaanxi Province in China, but also the most famous localities of Pikmin and Samos in Greece in Europe. The Linxia Basin is the largest fossil fossil mammal locality in China, and also in Eurasia, from the Late Cenozoic era, especially from the era of the Three-toed Horse fauna. The three-toed horse, the Hezheng sheep, the Samotherium and the large-lipped rhinoceros are the representative types in the Linxia three-toed horse fauna.

The three-toed horse is characterized by exactly what its name reflects, three toes (hooves) on each foot, but the lateral toes on each side are detached from the ground and do not play a role in walking and running. In fact, many primitive equids were three-toed, such as the progenitors of the modern horse, the Asymptote and Prairie Paleohorse, as well as the Anchor Horse of the shovel-toothed elephant fauna. The three-toed horse was not an ancestor of the modern horse; it was a side branch of equine evolution that finally became extinct from Africa 500,000 years ago, leaving no descendants.The Frenchman Cristal, who discovered a fossil of the three-toed horse in the French department of Vaucluse in 1832, correctly pointed out the difference between the three-toed horse and the true horse, but his article was published in a little-known journal, so the name of the three-toed horse was not recognized until after a considerable time before it was recognized. The teeth of the three-toed horse have a high crown and the upper cheek teeth have an isolated protocuspid, which is an important feature of the three-toed horse. The three-toed horse was once widely distributed in Asia, Europe, Africa and the Americas, and was also very numerous in China.

Wazheng sheep is actually a kind of musk ox, and in today's world musk ox is only distributed in North America. 1972 U.S. President Richard Nixon's first visit to China, decided to send a gift to China, the most American characteristics, in the countless brainstorming, and finally chose a musk ox, and China returned the most Chinese characteristics of the giant panda. Wazheng sheep is Wazheng area three toes horse fauna in one of the most representative animals, the number is very rich, it is found in Wazheng specimens as a positive type for the first time in the world to record a musk ox subfamily in the new genus of the new species, was named Bush Wazheng sheep, the species name to commemorate the fossil musk ox in China has made a significant contribution to the study of Sweden's paleontologist Dr. Breen. The Hezheng sheep is a medium-sized individual, smaller than the living North American musk ox, which has a short and thick horn core, its cross-section is triangular, and the bases of the right and left horn cores are very close to each other on the skull or even fused, which is one of the important features of the subfamily of musk oxen.

Giraffes usually have one pair of horns, and a few have two or more pairs of horns; the samarin is an ancient giraffe with two pairs of horns. Its head is long, its limbs are even more elongated, and, of course, it is its long neck that characterizes it the most. The Samotherium, as well as other giraffes, has only seven cervical vertebrae, like most mammals, but each one is elongated. The long neck combined with the long legs allowed the giraffe to eat the tender leaves from the high canopy of the trees, while other animals would have had to look at the trees. Compared to today's giraffes, the Samotherium's neck wasn't quite as long, just similar to the small and rare okapi. The early French naturalist Lamarck, a pioneer in evolutionary theory, believed that the short-necked giraffe evolved into the modern giraffe by trying to stretch its neck to feed on leaves high up in the trees. Of course, today we already know that his view was just a simple evolutionary idea, and that in fact acquired sex is not heritable, but is a result of natural selection accumulating favorable genetic mutations. Satsuma Lin is precisely an intermediate stage on the evolutionary process of the giraffe.

In the 1920s, Swedish paleontologists found a large number of fossils of the three-toed horse fauna in Baode, Shanxi and Fugu, Shaanxi. These fossils were shipped to Uppsala University in Sweden, where the rhinoceros fossils were handed over to the young Dr. Lindston for study. He was astonished to find dominating these specimens a strange rhinoceros with a mandibular anastomosis strongly expanded laterally, with two huge tusks with sharp edges, while the upper incisors had completely degenerated and disappeared. Lindston gave this type of rhinoceros the name large-lipped rhinoceros, suggesting that its upper lip resembled the soft snout of the modern tapir, and that it was able to roll up blades of grass to cut them on its sharp fangs. The body of the large-lipped rhinoceros was also very peculiar, with limbs so thick and short that its obese belly hung almost to the ground. In China, especially in the Linxia Basin, the large-lipped rhinoceros is the most abundant species in the three-toed equine fauna, and we can simply call the Late Miocene mammalian fauna the large-lipped rhinoceros fauna for this reason.

The distance from Lanzhou, the capital of Gansu Province, to Linxia is not far, drive a few dozen kilometers to the Taohe River, after the Taohe River is Linxia Hui Autonomous Prefecture. "Taohe river river bead" is full of magic nature of the mystery: Taohe river in the beginning of spring when the riverbed thawing, ice melt into a grain of crystal small beads floating in the river, not like the yellow river as every year to use the airplane to blow open the ice, but Taohe river ice bead formation so far there is no convincing explanation. I have passed dozens of times on the Taohe River, but unfortunately there has not been a time to see this natural wonder in the season of flowing beads. Linxia is a Hui settlement, everywhere you can see large and small mosques, some are tall and majestic, some are small and exquisite; there are Arab style green cylindrical vaults, but also the traditional Chinese style of hermetic hall; in the pattern, Arab geometric and Chinese flowers and leaves intertwined with the pattern of the whole building's layout, modeling, and the internal decorations of the integration of exotic Arab culture, the traditional culture of the Han people and Hui folk culture as a whole. The whole building layout and interior decoration integrates the exotic Arab culture, traditional Han culture and Hui folk culture. Whether in the crowded county or away from the hustle and bustle of the mountain villages, you can see the figure of the mosque. Standing in the field at the top of the mountain everywhere you look, you can easily see a dozen mosques, sometimes a small village has two or even three. The courtyard of the mosque is fresh and quiet, chic and spectacular, the paintings on the walls of the temple are solemn and solemn, simple and elegant.

The Linxia Basin is located in the arid region of western China, where annual rainfall is quite low. However, Hezheng County, the richest mammal fossil county in the Linxia Basin, is in a rather special position. Due to its proximity in the south to the foothills of the Taizi Mountains on the northeastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau, Hezheng receives relatively abundant rainfall in the Linxia Basin, especially in the southern part. But the abundance of rain also often caused problems for our expeditions. On one occasion, as we traveled to the Old Ditch site in Sanhe Township to conduct our work, the car roared up the rugged mechanized road. As soon as we got out of the car, we noticed that the sky was covered with dark clouds and a few raindrops sprinkled down from time to time, but this could not affect our expedition work, so we all put on our traveling clothes and climbed up the mountain. The landscape of this site is characterized by steep conglomerate cliffs on both sides of the ditch. As we trudged up to the top face of the crags, we realized that it was really raining. There is only a narrow goat path to the top of the conglomerate, and although it is dizzying to look down at the crags, we have been to this site many times before and have never felt squeamish. But today is a little different, the rain is getting heavier and heavier, it does not matter if you get wet, but your feet are getting more and more slippery, the anti-skid pattern on the soles of your shoes has long been smoothed out by the mud, and it does not work at all. At any time may lose footing in the abyss, we had to think of ways to save themselves, before and after can no longer walk, and one side of the cliff, the only way is to climb up the hill, although also full of danger, but is the safest and only way out. At this time, the geological hammer came in handy, every step with full force to hammer into the soil of the hillside, because the topsoil has been soaked by the rain to loose, can not eat the strength. Thus, step by step, we climbed to the top of the hill, then walked along the ridge to the end of the gully, and then descended from the bottom of the gully, which was the safest way in such rainy and treacherous conditions. By the time we got back to the car, it couldn't get down the hill. Luckily, the poplar trees along the roadside were already flourishing in the spring, so we broke off the branches of the trees to cushion the road for the car, and then we went down the mountain little by little. The rain was so long that we were stuck in the county for almost a week, delaying a lot of field work.

We traced the stratigraphy southward on our expedition to the edge of the Linxia Basin, which is geologically a deep fault in the Leijishan Mountains on the northeastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau. Standing in the basin and looking south you can see the majestic snow-capped mountains, which are snow-capped even in the middle of summer after rain. Beyond the peaks lies the precinct of the Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, known geomorphologically as the Meiwu Plateau, the most marginal part of the Tibetan Plateau, with a sharp boundary with the Linxia Basin below the mountains. Linxia's famous Taizi Mountain is located amidst the peaks and rises to a height of 4,332 meters above sea level. Prince Mountain is named after Kilfu Chipan, the crown prince of Western Qin during the period of the Sixteen Kingdoms of Wu Hu, who was the grandson of Kilfu Guo Ren of the Longxi Xianbei, and the son of Kilfu Qian Gui. He was the grandson of Longxi Xianbei Kilfu Guo Ren and the son of Kilfu Qian Gui. His father made him the crown prince during his reign, and the capital was Linxia, which was called Quercus in ancient times. Probably Kilfu Chipan often came here for hunting in those years and left the name of the mountain behind. Unfortunately, his kingdom was extinct just three years after he succeeded to the throne. The area around the Prince Mountain is densely forested, and as far as the eye can see, it is a verdant landscape that made us feel refreshed after we were tired of seeing the dry and bald mountains in the Linxia Basin. The forest is said to be home to a wide variety of animals, and we actually saw pheasants. The edge of the forest is rich in water and grass, making it an excellent natural pasture. The most crowded spot here is Songmingyan, at a glance, three abrupt peaks side by side, the peaks of the temple pavilions, pavilions and flying bridges appear. According to records, since the Yuan Dynasty, there have been people here to open the cave molding Buddha, hermitage practice. Formation of this peculiar landscape of the stratum is the Cretaceous dark purple-red giant thick conglomerate, in the role of the tectonic shear into the joints, along the joints of the weathering finally formed the natural wonders of this ghostly work of art. In the lunar calendar April 28th Songmingyan flower will be, it is crowded, singing.

The natural landscape in the center of the Linxia Basin is not entirely devoid of life, in our discovery of fossils on the Nanyang Mountain fossilized point has seen thousands of a group of wild pigeons. As we turned the hill, they were startled by a hoot and flew up to cover the sky. Feral pigeons are especially abundant where there are rocky cliffs, especially where there are outcrops of Late Pliocene conglomerates of the Jixi Formation, which can be a sign to look for outcrops of this formation. In the summer, light green grass also grows on the slightly damp slopes of the arid loess plateau in the basin, and sometimes an occasional white matsutake mushroom or two can be found, most notably clusters of wolfsbane in full bloom.

In addition to Hezheng County, Guanghe and Dongxiang counties in the Linxia Basin also have numerous fossilized sites. Alimatu, a township northwest of Guanghe County, is also a place rich in mammal fossils. The name of the place is strange, so I asked the local villagers about it, but it turns out that "Alimatu" is a Dongxiang word meaning "fruit". Driving across the Guangtong River, you can see the simple highway hanging on the mountainside, one side close to the mountain wall, the other side of the abyss. This mountain road has not remembered how many times I have traveled, rainy days the road surface is muddy, it is even more dangerous. The car can only climb to the mountain pass, and can no longer move forward, the rest of the distance will only rely on our feet.

Dongxiang County is the hometown of the Dongxiang people, the county lock South Dam is located in the towering mountain beams, 2600 meters above sea level, the Yellow River, Taohe River, Daxia River and the Guangtong River in the surrounding mountains below the surroundings, the town has only one along the meandering ridge extension of the main street, Dongxiang County, within the boundaries of a beam of the mountain like the spokes of the wheel from the lock South Dam to all directions. All of Dongxiang County is covered by wind-formed loess from the Quaternary Period, and the strata of the Tertiary System are exposed at the locations of gullies cut through by flowing water. A deep gully is located just below the town of Locknan, and at the bottom of the gully the oldest Late Oligocene red beds of the region and their granitic basement can be seen. However, the Tertiary red deposits have poor water-bearing properties, and the annual rainfall in Dongxiang is very low, so this area is quite arid, and it is very difficult to see any running water on the surface. In the Linxia basin, Dongxiang is the driest area, known as "dry Dongxiang", the bare barren mountains and dry ridge is difficult to see green, the occasional tree is like a "message tree" as a lone standing in the mountain tops. Often, when it was pouring rain and thunder and lightning in Hezheng, our workplace in Dongxiang was still blazing with sunshine and no clouds in the sky. Of course, this is the best for our field work, and we don't have to work at all. However, looking at the arid land, we also feel as worried as the old folks.

The Longtan neighborhood of Naleshi Township is known for producing rich specimens of Early Pleistocene true horse fauna. This area is representative of an extremely arid zone, completely dependent on the sky. In the area of Longtan, old villagers live on the tops of the mountains on both sides of the ditch, because only on the tops of the mountains can they find slightly more spacious flat land to build houses. But the only spring was at the bottom of the ditch, so fetching water became the most important thing in the day. We have come to work at this site countless times and have often seen the hardships of the old folks in fetching water. The spring is very small, with a small pool less than a meter square that is closed very tightly to minimize evaporation of water. The villagers would use a spoon to carefully pour the water from the pool into a bucket that was also well sealed, and then put the two buckets on the backs of oxen or horses and carry them back to their villages on the top of the mountains. Carrying water back and forth, up and down, was so arduous that the old folks were so tired that they dragged the oxen and horses by their tails up the mountain to save a little strength. The poor oxen and horses have to add this extra pain.

Often trekking in the mountains and valleys of the Linxia Basin, sometimes walking on the road, and suddenly realized that the road has come to an end, under the feet or head is straight up and down the cliffs, the goat's intestines on the cliffs hanging. The local townspeople, especially children in such terrain climbed up and ran down very easily, while we are with the help of a mountaineering pickaxe, but also often be woefully stranded in mid-air, on the top can not go, down also can not come down. However, in these gullies and ravines there are often warm encounters: Linxia's townspeople are particularly hospitable, although the poor natural conditions make them very poor, but every time we bumped into the field work, we must invite us to go to the house to drink tea, to see us work too busy to go, they will be boiling water to our workplace up.

Here can grow a little better crops are drought-resistant ability to some of the potatoes, it is said that the Dongxiang potatoes are very famous, but also supply export miles. However, again drought-resistant crops, encountered a big drought is no harvest. There are no minerals in this area, and the only thing that can be mined is probably sand. In the late Miocene three toes under the horse red clay development of a very good set of river and lake phase sand and gravel, in the Linxia Basin of this layer can be seen everywhere in the sand mining, simply become a symbol of our stratigraphic comparison. Of course, digging "keel" has become an important economic source.

Mammal fossils in the Linxia Basin began to be excavated in the 1950s as "keel bone" for herbal medicine, using the method of cutting horizontal pits in the ditch walls. After the fossils were extracted, they were artificially broken in order to separate the "dragon's teeth" from the "dragon's bones". In the Linxia Basin, many villagers have more or less dragon bones in their homes. In winter, many people participate in the excavation, partly because winter is the agricultural season, and partly because the Linxia Basin is more than 2,000 meters above sea level, so it is very cold in winter, while it is warm as spring inside the keel tunnels, and so villagers are happy to go into the caves. In the summer, the number of people is greatly reduced, the summer is the busy season, and one of the more important reasons is that in the summer most of the villagers go to the Gannan and Qinghai areas to dig more valuable Chinese medicine Cordyceps. Many of the fossil-producing sites have quite a number of pits, each with more switchbacks, and the deepest main pit is nearly 500 meters. Villagers digging fossils in addition to maintaining the same level, there is no specific basis, just horizontal arbitrary digging, so that adjacent pits are often inadvertently cut through. After the discovery of the fossils, they excavated forks, but did not excessively expand the width of the hole to ensure that the roof of the hole did not collapse. Inside the tunnels there are electric wires drawn from the village, but they are all bare wires made directly from wire or steel, which is very dangerous. Transportation inside the cave was done by hand, using crates with the wheels removed. Simple kilns were dug next to the tunnels for resting and cooking, and there was still digging in the tunnels at night. Most of the rich pit used for a long time, some pits have been used for more than a decade.

In recent years, the mammal fossils in the Linxia Basin are being more and more adequately protected thanks to the efforts of local governments and scientific research departments. With the promulgation of a series of rules and regulations from the central government to the local government, the activities of private excavation and theft of fossils in Linxia Basin have been curbed, while scientific investigation and research have been rapidly strengthened. Under the in-depth exploration of professionals and the enthusiastic participation of the general public, the rich Late Cenozoic mammal fossils in the Linxia Basin will surely show their important value in scientific research and knowledge popularization.