Chinese Paleozoic fossils, 93 boxes weighing 14 tons, once smuggled
to the United States, were returned gratuitously to China. However,
at least one box of sea lily was found severely damaged when
experts from the Beijing Museum of Natural Sciences checked them.
Those 110 pieces of Paleozoic fossils are the largest batch
returned to China gratuitously by the United States, among which
the most valuable one is a 4-5-meter-long, well-preserved Guizhou
ichthyosaur. It is a kind of unique sea creature living in China's
Guizhou Sea about 300 million years ago. Besides the ichthyosaur,
there are also 10 Guizhou dragons, some fish fossil and
crinoids.
According to experts, it is unprecedented to collect at a single
time so much valuable Paleozoic fossil in the history of the
museum. More importantly, no artificial carving signs are shown on
those fossils.
Experts indicated those fossils were found in Guizhou Province. The
Guizhou ichthyosaur, Guizhou dragon and crinoids existed in seas
during the Triassic Period of the Mesozoic Era, some 225 million
years ago.
The Guizhou ichthyosaur and Guizhou dragon were believed to have
disappeared in the late Mesozoic Era, while crinoids were
invertebrates that lived 200 to 300 meters beneath the sea.
The fossils were seized by customs officers of San Diego,
California. The United States decided to return the smuggled
fossils in accordance with agreements with China after confirming
the source country of these fossils.
(
June 13, 2002)