Dinosaur Fossil Excavation Site

Dinosaur Fossil Excavation Site

The Dinosaur Fossil Excavation Site is a cultural tourism attraction.

The Napai Basin is located within Shanzhu Town, Fusui County, and is one of China’s important sites for early Cretaceous vertebrate fossils. Covering an area of approximately 150 square kilometers, it is a Mesozoic rift basin. During the early Cretaceous period, the basin was teeming with various forms of life, especially dinosaurs from the Mesozoic era.

The first dinosaur fossils in the Napai Basin were discovered in 1971. In 1973, Hou Lianhai and other experts from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences traveled to Guangxi. Together with staff from the Guangxi Museum, they conducted surveys and trial excavations at the Shangyingtun dinosaur fossil site. They successively discovered fossils such as bivalves, turtles, hard-scaled fish scales, and hybodont shark teeth. Among them, the discovery of the early Cretaceous “Sinopliosaurus” (later identified as Spinosaurus) expanded the distribution range of spinosaurids in Asia. Previously found only in Thailand and Japan, this was their first discovery in China. In 1994, the Guangxi Natural History Museum carried out a 20-day survey and trial excavation at the Napai Basin dinosaur fossil site, discovering over ten dinosaur fossil locations in the basin and finding numerous fragments of dinosaur fossils in the farmlands of Longcaoling Village. In 2001, world-class quality dinosaur fossils were unearthed in the Napai Basin of Shanzhu Town, Fusui County. The “One Nest, Three Dragons” dinosaur fossils are among the tallest sauropod dinosaur fossils from the early Cretaceous period in the world, considered a “rare treasure.” Between 2008 and 2016, a team comprising the Guangxi Natural History Museum and renowned dinosaur expert Eric Buffetaut from the French National Centre for Scientific Research conducted multiple paleontological fossil surveys in the Napai Basin, uncovering numerous fossils including bivalves, sharks, bony fish, turtles, crocodiles, and various types of dinosaurs. In 2014, Fusui County was honored with the title of “National Key Protected Concentrated Area of Paleontological Fossils,” approved and awarded by the Ministry of Land and Resources, becoming the only county in Guangxi to receive this distinction. In 2015, Fusui County successfully applied and was granted the title of “Hometown of Dinosaurs in China,” marking a phased advancement in the protection of paleontological fossils.

In March 2016, the Guangxi Natural History Museum, together with renowned dinosaur expert Eric Buffetaut from the French National Centre for Scientific Research and others, conducted large-scale paleontological fossil surveys in the Napai Basin of Shanzhu Town, Fusui County. They discovered a wealth of paleontological fossils and identified potential excavation sites, laying the foundation for subsequent systematic excavation work.