A hilly 512 ha site in Yunnan province, Chengjiang’s fossils present the most complete record of an early Cambrian marine community with exceptionally preserved biota, displaying the anatomy of hard and soft tissues in a very wide variety of organisms, invertebrate and vertebrate. They record the early establishment of a complex marine ecosystem. The site documents at least sixteen phyla and a variety of enigmatic groups as well as about 196 species, presenting exceptional testimony to the rapid diversification of life on Earth 530 million years ago, when almost all of today’s major animal groups emerged. It opens a palaeobiological window of great significance to scholarship.
UNESCO World Heritage Site
Chengjiang Fossil Site
A hilly 512 ha site in Yunnan province, Chengjiang’s fossils present the most complete record of an early Cambrian marine community with exceptionally preserved biota, displaying the anatomy of hard and soft tissues in a very wide variety of organisms, invertebrate and vertebrate
Collections featuring Chengjiang Fossil Site
More UNESCO sites in China
- Ancient Building Complex in the Wudang Mountains
- Ancient City of Ping Yao
- Ancient Villages in Southern Anhui – Xidi and Hongcun
- Archaeological Ruins of Liangzhu City
- Badain Jaran Desert - Towers of Sand and Lakes
- Beijing Central Axis: A Building Ensemble Exhibiting the Ideal Order of the Chinese Capital
- Capital Cities and Tombs of the Ancient Koguryo Kingdom
- China Danxia