Linshu Jishan Geopark: A “Dinosaur Park” of the Cretaceous Era

Linshu Jishan Geopark in Shandong Province is located in Caozhuang Town and Shimen Town, the southwest area of Linshu County. A theme park with features such as the dinosaur footprint fossils, structural relics, Danxia landforms, diamond mineral origins and other geological landscapes, it is a comprehensive geopark that integrates scientific investigation, popular science education, leisure vacation, entertainment and adventure.

One hundred million years ago, during the late Cretaceous period, Jishan and even the entire Linyi region were a paradise for dinosaurs, with their footprints around. During the course of time, the footprints have been thickly covered with dust. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other geological movements, however, dug up the deeply buried soil layers again, thus the reappearance of a large number of dinosaur footprints.

The dinosaur footprint fossils can be clearly seen on the layers of purple-red or yellow mudstone as well as siltstone. Hundreds of them are densely distributed and of various shapes. Research shows that the archeological site preserves fossils of migrated or habituated footprints left by dinosaurs including the large sauropods, the medium-sized tetrapods, the theropods and the ornithopods. This is of great significance for studying the evolution and migration of dinosaurs in the early Cretaceous age. Meanwhile, the footprints of small-sized prehistoric dinosaurs such as Psittacosaurus were discovered at the site, too. These newly discovered footprints have greatly made up for the lack of dinosaur fossils in the corresponding stratum.