Yanziyan Saber-Toothed Elephant Fossil Site

　　Situated on Yanziyan, approximately 2 kilometers northwest of the district government, in the ninth villager group of Chuanxin Village, Huangtupo Subdistrict Office, it is a natural fissure cave. The cave entrance faces north, tilts inward, and is large enough for people to enter. Thirty-one meters into the cave, a vertical descent of 42 meters leads to the cave floor. The floor consists of lava sediment and quicksand, with saber-toothed elephant fossils neatly distributed along the southeastern stone wall.

　　In 1975, a joint excavation was carried out by the Shuicheng Cultural Center, Shuicheng Transport Company, and the Provincial Museum. A pair of saber-teeth, each 1.75 meters long and robust, were unearthed, along with several molars and fossils of scapula, vertebrae, skull, fibula, and femur. These represent the first discovery of relatively complete saber-toothed elephant fossils south of the Yangtze River in China.

　　Authenticated by relevant experts, the fossils belong to a saber-toothed elephant from the Middle Pleistocene period (approximately 400,000 years ago). This discovery provides valuable data for research on the geography and climate of our district and Guizhou Province, and holds significant importance for the study of animal populations and plant distribution during China’s Middle Pleistocene, as well as for geological strata and tectonic movement. On December 4, 1980, the cave was designated as a county-level cultural relics protection unit. The excavated fossils are housed in the Provincial Museum.