Burial environment and geoheritage value of dinosaur fossils of the Middle Jurassic- Puan, Yunyang, Chongqing Municipality

Hongliang Zhang; Wenguang Yan; Hui Dai; Deliang Li; Yuxuan Zhou; Haidong Yu; Yu Lin

doi:10.18814/epiiugs/2020/020094

HOME Article View

Article

Episodes 2021; 44(4): 401-418

Published online December 1, 2021

https://doi.org/10.18814/epiiugs/2020/020094

Burial environment and geoheritage value of dinosaur fossils of the Middle Jurassic- Puan, Yunyang, Chongqing Municipality

Hongliang Zhang¹, Wenguang Yan^2*, Hui Dai³, Deliang Li⁴, Yuxuan Zhou^2,3, Haidong Yu³, Yu Lin³

¹College of Earth Science, Chengdu University of Technology, Chengdu, 610059,China
²Institute of Sedimentary Geology, Chengdu University of Technology, Chengdu, 610059, China
³Chongqing Laboratory of Geoheritage Protection and Research, No. 208 Hydrogeological and Engineering Geological Team, Chongqing Bureau of Geological and Mineral Resource Exploration and Development, Chongqing, 40070, China
⁴Chongqing Institute of Geological Survey, Chongqing, 401122, China

Correspondence to:E-mail: yangwg1018@gmail.com

Received: July 13, 2020; Revised: December 25, 2020; Accepted: December 25, 2020

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

A Jurassic site in the Puan area (Yunyang County, Chongqing Municipality) with paleontological heritage of dinosaur fossils is regarded as having high scientific and touristic value. The paleontological field’s geoheritage value was used to approve the establishment of a national geopark in 2020, which may promote socioeconomic development for the local population. The study and protection of these dinosaur fossils is still a necessity for establishing a geopark that will strengthen the protection and development of this area. The fossils in this region were recovered from the Middle Jurassic Xintiangou Formation and Lower Shaximiao Formation. Herein, we describe the background of the fossil burial in conjunction with sedimentology, and then we discuss the scientific and socioeconomic significance of the dinosaur fossils’ geoheritage value.