AP, HONG KONG
Officials in Hong Kong on Wednesday said they have discovered dinosaur fossils in the territory for the first time on a remote, uninhabited island that is part of a geopark.
Experts have initially confirmed the fossils were part of a large dinosaur from the Cretaceous period, about 145 million to 66 million years ago, the government said in a statement. They would need to conduct further studies to confirm the species of the dinosaur.
Experts speculate that the dinosaur was likely buried by sand and gravel after its death before it was later washed to the surface by a large flood, and subsequently buried again at the discovery site.
Zhang Pengjie, an expert from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, cleans and prepares a rock containing dinosaur bone fossil, and clears the rock covering the fossil discovered in Hong Kong’s Port Island.
Photo courtesy of the Hong Kong Antiquities and Monuments Office
The government said the Hong Kong Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department in March informed its Antiquities and Monuments Office about a sedimentary rock containing substances suspected to be vertebrate fossils.
The rock was found on Port Island in the Hong Kong UNESCO Global Geopark in the territory’s northeastern waters.
Port Island is closed to the public from Wednesday until further notice to facilitate future investigations and excavations.
The fossils would be displayed at the Hong Kong Heritage Discovery Centre in Tsim Sha Tsui, one of the territory’s popular shopping districts, starting today. The government is also planning to open a temporary workshop for the public to observe experts’ preparation of fossil specimens by the end of this year.
