A national dinosaur geological park with China's most and intact dinosaur footprint fossils opened to the public on Tuesday in the northwestern province of Gansu.
More than 100 fossils of dinosaur footprints have been found since July 1999 on the slope of a hill in Yongjing County, most of them intact, according to archaeologists. One is about 1.5 m long and 1.2 m wide, thought to be the largest of its kind in the world.
Liujiaxia National Geological Dinosaurs Park covers 15 square kilometers, and is located about 60 kilometers west of the provincial capital Lanzhou. There are more than 2,000 square meters containing 1,724 footprint fossils there including those of other reptiles and birds.
The park's construction cost over 7 million yuan (US$863,132) and includes a Cretaceous dinosaur museum, a dinosaur footprint exhibition area, a mock area of the ancient geology and a scientific research institution.
People can see the fossils of invertebrates together with geological relics like a Cretaceous stratum section in the park.
(Xinhua News Agency October 12, 2005)
