"Dinosaurs Along The Silk Road" -- Sinofossa 2009 2: IVPP

On the first day of the tour, we visited the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP), just down the street from the hotel. This is probably the premier vertebrate paleontology institution in China, and certainly one of the most famous in the world, no matter how you slice it.

The IVPP had a new, albeit small, exhibit on some of the Early Cambrian soft-bodied fossils from <a href="http://www.fossilmuseum.net/Fossil_Sites/Chengjiang/Chengjiang-Biota.htm">Chengjiang</a>, in Yunnan Province -- this exhibit wasn't there last year. Unfortunately, while the exhibit was great to look at (with the magnifying glasses to blow up small fossils for viewers), it was nearly impossible to photograph, what with the glass, lighting, and focal lengths incorporating the magnifying glasses. This is the only one I took that even vaguely came out. This is a "worm" of some sort named <i>Circocosmia</i>.

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The IVPP had a new, albeit small, exhibit on some of the Early Cambrian soft-bodied fossils from Chengjiang, in Yunnan Province -- this exhibit wasn't there last year. Unfortunately, while the exhibit was great to look at (with the magnifying glasses to blow up small fossils for viewers), it was nearly impossible to photograph, what with the glass, lighting, and focal lengths incorporating the magnifying glasses. This is the only one I took that even vaguely came out. This is a "worm" of some sort named Circocosmia.

circocosmia chengjiang worm ivpp museum