重庆市綦江县莲花保寨:中国古人与恐龙足迹共存的直接证据

重庆市綦江县老瀛山莲花保寨除了大量多样化的恐龙足迹之外,还保存了完好的要塞结构及历代题刻。从古迹可知,莲花保寨最早可追溯到南宋宝祐四年(1256年),很可能是当地人躲避蒙元军队对尚属南宋统治下的蜀地的进攻之用。此后,清朝又在此留下多处古迹。这些古迹与大量(至少以5种不同方式保存的)恐龙足迹(尤其是鸭嘴龙类足迹)共存,构成了中国古人在恐龙足迹化石点上长时间生活(可能长达700余年)的直接证据。而莲花保寨的泥裂、鸭嘴龙类足迹和波痕被引申为荷叶叶脉、莲花和水环境,也成为“莲花保寨”得名的证据。这项研究表明恐龙足迹参与了中国部分古地名、民间传说的形成,这些古地名、民间传说或可成为寻找恐龙足迹的重要线索。

Lianhua Baozhai(Lotus Mountain fortress, Qijing County of Chongqing City): A direct evidence of co-existing ancient Chinese and dinosaur tracks

This paper describes the Lianhua Baozhai (Lotus Mountain Fortress) of the Laoyingshan Mountain in Qijiang County, Chongqing City, where abundant and diverse dinosaur tracks, fortress structures and word carvings of past dynasties are exceptionally preserved. The Lianhua Baozhai historic monuments can be traced back to Baoyou 4th Year of the Southern Song Dynasty (A.D. 1256). The fortress might have been used to repel the attacks of the Mongolian Army from the Yuan Dynasty on Sichuan, which was then still dominated by the Southern Song Dynasty. Many historic monuments were also constructed there during the Qing Dynasty. These historic monuments are found along with an abundance of dinosaur tracks (especially hadrosaurid tracks), representing at least five different preservation types, and constituting direct evidence for the long-term inhabitation of ancient Chinese people at this dinosaur track site (perhaps longer than 700 years). The name of the Lianhua Baozhai reflects their belief that the track site represented lotus leaf veins (the mud cracks) and petals (the hadrosaurid tracks) submerged in water (the ripple marks). This study indicates that dinosaur tracks were taken into account in Chinese folklore and in the formation of partial ancient place names in China, which may therefore constitute important clues for the search of dinosaur tracks.