Chapter 313: Shocking the World! Paleolithic Human Site?
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Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Fossils, on the other hand? Those were beloved by people all around the world. The plan was to open a museum and attract international attention, with a goal of one million foreign tourist visits per year, after all. Perhaps these fossils could help Luo Feng achieve this.
“It appears to be a complete set of fossils, and quite rare at that!” Luo Feng exclaimed.
“Many of you may not know this, but the conditions for fossil formation are quite stringent!” he continued. “Almost all fossils require a significant burial event. That’s because it’s difficult for animal remains to form fossils if they aren’t buried by sediment. This is also why there are more fossils found in the ocean and fewer on land.”
“Aquatic animals, after death, can sink and become buried in the mud,” he explained. “On land, however, large-scale disasters such as flash floods or mudslides are necessary to bury the animal remains.”
“I suspect that this area may have experienced a major mudslide tens or even hundreds of thousands of years ago. But since this appears to be a low-lying area, it’s more likely to have been a flood,” Luo Feng said, sharing a wealth of seemingly unnecessary knowledge. Many people, of course, could understand what he was saying, as it was not particularly complex.
“Let’s all pitch in and carefully dig out this complete set of fossils,” he urged.
“What we’ve found so far is just one bone, making it difficult to identify the creature. But now that we’ve found a complete set, it should be much easier!”
Half an hour later, with everyone’s help, they had completely unearthed the fossil, which was over a meter in length. The head and body together were about a meter long, while the tailbone measured around five centimeters.
“What kind of animal is this? It looks like a dog,” someone wondered aloud.
“You must be joking. There were no dogs a million years ago,” another person scoffed.
“Ha, more like a wolf!” someone else chimed in.
“With only bones remaining, it’s difficult to identify the animal,” another person commented. “It doesn’t look like a wolf.”
After observing the fossil for a moment, Luo Feng spoke up: “This is a giant panda!”
“A giant panda? Really?” Su Meiji widened her eyes in disbelief.
“Giant panda fossils might not be worth as much as the saber-toothed tiger fossils we found last time,” she remarked.
“But that saber-toothed tiger lived just over 10,000 years ago. This fossil is at least a million years old! It must be worth more,” Luo Feng reasoned, glancing at Su Meiji. “How could it not be? This is a giant panda from roughly 100,000 years ago, although there are differences between it and modern pandas.” “There were giant pandas 100,000 years ago?” Qin Rubing asked, puzzled.
“Well, of course. The nickname ‘living fossil’ isn’t just for show,” Luo Feng replied with a helpless smile. “You have a deep understanding of antiques, but when it comes to things older than 10,000 years, you seem quite clueless!”
“You’re the clueless one. Fossils aren’t antiques, so of course I’m not an expert!” Although Qin Rubing retorted, she felt a strange fondness for being teased in this manner.
“It’s an ancestor of the giant panda, known as the primordial bear. It was generally around a meter in size, and it was not very large,” Luo Feng explained. “Based on its teeth and body size, it should be a Middle Pleistocene ancient giant panda, also known as the Bashan’s panda. That was the prime of the giant panda, with fossils dating between 100,000 and one million years ago!”
Su Meiji inquired, “Middle Pleistocene? Was that during the Old Stone Age?”
“Yes, the Middle Pleistocene is a period within the Quaternary glaciation, established during the 1932 International Quaternary Conference. Its exact start and end dates are still debated. The Middle Pleistocene was an important period for global climate and environmental changes, with a transition in climate cycles, increased global ice volume, a drop in sea levels, and the migration or extinction of mammals.”
“Some scholars place the Early Pleistocene between 3 million and 1 million years ago, corresponding to the earliest stage of the Old Stone Age; the Middle Pleistocene between 1 million and 100,000 years ago, corresponding to the middle and late stages of the Old Stone Age. In China, the Middle Pleistocene is considered to have ended around 40,000 years ago. Other scholars propose that the Pleistocene began around 2.4 million years ago; the boundaries between the Early, Middle, and Late Pleistocene being around 730,000 years ago and 128,000 years ago, respectively. Thus, the Middle Pleistocene would span from 730,000 to 128,000 years ago.”
“So, it’s indeed accurate to say that it was during the Old Stone Age,” Luo Feng clarified.
It had to be said that Su Meiji was well-read and incredibly intelligent. No wonder so many wealthy heirs and powerful families wanted to marry her.
Without further ado, Luo Feng proceeded to excavate the next treasure. It was buried just 20 to 30 centimeters below the surface, making it relatively easy to unearth. Soon, they found a sharp, elongated stone object about 15 centimeters long and one centimeter wide.
“What is this thing?” someone asked.
“A sharp stone?” another person suggested.
“Doesn’t it look like the tip of a spear?” someone else guessed.
“It doesn’t seem to be a spearhead; spearheads are thinner than this,” another person chimed in.
Upon seeing the sharp, slender stone, the viewers in the livestream room began to stir. But at that moment, Luo Feng’s eyes lit up.
“A stone tool!” he exclaimed. “This is a stone tool used by prehistoric humans!
There are traces of human existence from the Stone Age here!”
Luo Feng was extremely excited. He knew that the livestream room was about to explode with activity, and perhaps the world’s attention would once again be focused on this very spot..
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