Paleontologists have made the first discovery of dinosaur fossils in Hong Kong, found in red sedimentary rocks on the small, uninhabited island Harbor Island (Also called Chek Chaumeaning “red island”) to the northeast of the metropolis. The historic discovery, made in Hong Kong UNESCO Global Geoparkwas announced in a statement from the Hong Kong government last week.

“The discovery is of great significance and provides new evidence for paleoecology research in Hong Kong,” Bernadette LinHong Kong Development Secretary said in the statement.

Based on preliminary analysis, experts identified the fossils as the skeletal remains of a “large, aged dinosaur” dating back to the Cretaceous Periodapproximately 145 to 66 million years ago. They don’t yet know what species it belonged to, but they hypothesize that its remains were buried in sand and gravel, resurfaced due to a flood and were reburied, according to the TutorThis is Helen Davidson.

“This extremely exciting discovery now adds local dinosaur fossils to Hong Kong’s strong history of dinosaur research,” Michael Pittmandinosaur paleobiologist at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, tells Reuters. “I hope this will spark greater interest in science and nature in our community and lead to notable scientific results.”

China, along with Argentina, Canada and the United States, is one of the main geographic regions for the identification and study of dinosaur fossils. And Hong Kong is an important center of paleontological research, according to ArtnetThis is Tim Brinkhof. It might therefore come as a surprise that this latest dinosaur discovery is the first in Hong Kong, but such remains are rare, as the environmental conditions in the area were not optimal for fossilization.

“Hong Kong is famous for being a built landscape, but half of it is natural parks. In rural areas, most of what you see are rocks from the age of dinosaurs, but they are volcanic rocks – and they are bad places to find fossils, because the fossils just melt,” says Pittman to the newspaper. Tutor. “But Port Island is one of the islands that has dinosaur-age rocks of the right type and environment.”

In March this year, Hong Kong’s Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation alerted authorities that Port Island may contain dinosaur fossils. When experts were sent to the island to investigate this claim, they confirmed what the researchers had hoped for in digging up the historic bones.

Until now, the only “things from the dinosaur age” identified in Hong Kong were plants and fish, Pittman says. CNNThis is Karina Tsui. He adds that skeletal remains as a whole are rare in southern China, a region best known for dinosaur egg discoveries.

“It’s shocking because I never thought there would be dinosaur fossils in Hong Kong,” Chong Got, who was one of the first to see the fossils at the Heritage Discovery Center, told Reuters from Hong Kong. The new finds have been on display at the museum since Friday.

The Hong Kong government has now closed Port Island indefinitely to allow further excavations, the statement said, in the hope of making more discoveries.

“If they end up finding an entire skeleton of a large dinosaur or two dinosaurs, they may have to go back next summer, and the summer after that,” Pittman told CNN.