Several large wooden constructions
First discovered in 1978,the site used
Researchers
Researchers believe
When the Library Cave, known as Cave 17 from the Mogao Cave Complex at Dunhuang, China, was opened in 1900, several tons of manuscripts, scrolls, booklets and paintings on silk and paper
Cave 17 is only one of the 735 human-made caves
The Dunhuang Academy was set up in China in
Carved in Binyangzhong Cave, an imperial cave excavated in the Northern Wei Dynasty (386-534), the relief sculpture(浮雕)Emperor and Empress Pay Respect for Buddha is a national treasure of great historic and
In
In order to restore the
“Actors started studying materials a month in advance, imitating the looks of the characters from the sculpture, and then rehearsed many times
“The painting shows the development of ancient Chinese painting and sculpture,
4 . Scientists from the University of Texas at Austin have finally solved the mystery of a huge fossil that has been unlabeled and unidentified sitting at a Chilean museum for almost a decade. The relic, which looks like a deflated football, is the largest known soft-shelled egg from a marine reptile that lived on the earth over 66 million years ago. Measuring more than 11 by 7 inches, it is also the second-largest egg belonging to any known animal, only behind the now-extinct elephant bird.
The rare fossil named “The Thing” was discovered inside a rock formation in Seymour Island off the coast of Antarctica in 2011 by a team of researchers including David Rubilar-Rogers. Over the years, the paleontologist at Chile's National Museum of Natural History has showed the strange fossil to every geologist that came to the museum. However, no one was able to identify “The Thing's” origin until Julia Clarke, a professor at UT-Austin's Jackson School of Geosciences, visited in 2018.
“I showed it to her, and, after a few minutes, Julia told me it could be an egg!” Rubilar-Rogers said.
To confirm Clarke's suspect, Lucas Legendre, a student at UT-Austin who led the study, examined the fossil under a microscope. Sure enough, he found several layers of membrane, confirming that the fossil was indeed a soft-shelled egg, similar to the obvious, quick-hatching eggs laid by some modern-day snakes. “The shell is very thin,” said Clarke.
The fossil's identification led to an even bigger mystery — what animal could have laid an egg this size? After considering several potential parents, the researchers concluded that the egg was laid by an ancient marine reptile like a mosasaur. The fact that the rock formation where the egg had been found had fossil evidence of baby mosasaurs and the offspring of other marine animals further strengthened their theory.
1. What can we know from the first paragraph?A."The Thing" is the largest egg laid by animals. |
B."The Thing" has been discovered for a century. |
C."The Thing" looks like a football not having enough gas. |
D.“The Thing” belongs to an elephant bird. |
A.It may be laid by a snake. | B.It could be an egg. |
C.It has a very thick shell. | D.It has existed for 66 thousand years. |
A.Use a microscope to examine "The Thing". |
B.Analyze a lot of data collected by researchers. |
C.Do as many as experiments with his colleagues. |
D.Compare the fossil with the eggs of various animals, |
A.An ancient marine reptile laid the egg. |
B.The egg's potential parents are snakes. |
C.The way of rock formation affects the egg. |
D.The size of the eggs lies in the weight of the animals. |
Lanzhou, 9 August 2017. A group of researchers and scientists from China and other countries are working together to help increase knowledge and