Paleontological Fossil Site

Paleontological Fossil Site

The paleontological fossil site is a cultural tourism attraction.

About ten-odd kilometers southeast of Meihekou City lies a township called Xingling Township, which was once one of the “Eight Scenic Spots of Hailong” during the Qing Dynasty, known as “Early Spring in Xingling.” Several years ago, local residents accidentally discovered ancient fossils while working on the mountain.

The paleontological fossil site in Meihekou City has been preliminarily identified by experts from the provincial natural history museum, the provincial regional geological survey team, and the Paleontology and Stratigraphy Research Center of Jilin University. The types of fish fossils found are Lycoptera, and the stone is gray sedimentary rock. According to expert research, the paleontological fossil group in Shuanghe Village, Xingling Township, formed between the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, approximately 125 million years ago. The fossils mainly feature animals and insects such as fish, snakes, frogs, clams, dragonflies, ostracods, and shrimp, as well as some plant patterns and rare, as-yet-unidentified scaly animal patterns. These fossils hold significant scientific and extraction value. Most are distributed in gray sedimentary rock layers about 9 to 13 meters below the surface, with sporadic findings also present in other strata.

In 2003, Meihekou City designated the Xingling paleontological fossil group as a natural ecological reserve. While conducting scientific preservation, small-scale preliminary fossil extraction and collection work have also been carried out. The discovery of the Xingling paleontological fossils reveals the ancient biological remains and activity traces formed during the prehistoric geological periods of human history and preserved within the strata. They serve as testimonies to Earth’s history and provide scientific evidence for the study of the origin and evolution of life. These hundreds of millions of years old paleontological fossils not only possess extremely high scientific research value but also offer considerable appreciation and collection worth.