The First dinosaur fossils in Hong Kong have been discovered on a remote island in the rural area of the city. The fossils, unearthed by the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department last March on Port Island, are described in a report about the discovery published on a government statement as an uninhabitable rocky area in the northeastern waters.
Researchers have determined that the bone fossils likely originated from a 'large aged dinosaur' from the Cretaceous period an era more than 145 million to 66 million years ago that followed the Jurassic period.
Hong Kong’s Secretary of Development Bernadette Linn said that “the discovery is of great significance and provides new evidence for research on palaeoecology in Hong Kong”, the statement read.
Since 1979, Port Island has been designated as a site of special scientific interest and is also part of Hong Kong’s UNESCO Global Geopark a cluster of islands protected by an international framework and primarily used for education and sustainable development.
“Further studies will have to be conducted to confirm the species of the dinosaur”, officials said, adding that Port Island and the wider country park will be closed for further excavations and research. The dinosaur fossils will also be on public display at Hong Kong’s Heritage Discovery Centre.
An expert from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences measures a rock containing dinosaur bone fossil discovered in Hong Kong's Port Island.
Hong Kong's Antiquities and Monu/AP
Experts in paleontology say the landmark discovery is a big deal for Hong Kong, a city with a complex geological history and ever-changing weather patterns.
“The only way we can find dinosaur fossils is if there is a bit on the surface that we can see”, Michael Pittman, an assistant professor of life sciences at the Chinese University of Hong Kong told CNN, adding that the remains may have fully eroded if researchers arrived later.
The only 'dinosaur-era things' Hong Kong has found so far are plants and fish, he said.
Pittman also noted that the discovery of body fossils is rare regionally, as skeletal remains are not typically found in southern China, known instead for its dinosaur eggs.
Since 2020, however, researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences have found dinosaur remains buried shallowly across nine localities in the southwestern province of Yunnan and have carried out excavations.
It has been reported that paleontologists in Jiangxi province unearthed fossils of Gandititan cavocaudatus, which are actually from construction sites in the region and date about 90 million years. They are new to the list of species that come under dinosaurs in East Asia.
The time to be closed from visitors is not known. Says Pittman, "If they find a complete skeleton of a large dinosaur or two, they may have to come back for further digs next summer and maybe the next year".
