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Chengjiang County (Chinese: officially 澂江县; often spelled 澄江县; pinyin: ''Chéngjiāng Xiàn''; earlier Tchinkiang) is in Yuxi, Yunnan Province, China, just north of Fuxian Lake. Within evolutionary biology, and especially paleontology, Chengjiang County is noted for soft-tissue fossil finds, of the ''Maotianshan Shales'', dated to between 525 and 520 million years ago during the Cambrian explosion, which "are as spectacular as the Burgess Shale fauna, and significantly older".〔 Also ISBN 978-1-84046-780-2〕 These fossils are considered one of the most important fossil finds of the 20th Century. Not only do they contain an exquisite degree of detail, but they also cover a diverse range of fauna, and are of significance in attempts to understand the evolution of life on Earth.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 title=Chengjiang Maotianshan Shales Fossils )〕 The fossils were first discovered by Henri Mansuy and Jaques Deprat who described the fossils in 1912, the year after Charles Walcott's initial publications on the Burgess Shale. It wasn't until 1984 that the true significance of the palaeontology of the region was realised by Hou Xian-guang, a Professor at Yunnan University, Kunming, where he is Director of the Research Center for Chengjiang Biota. Previously he was a Professor at the Palaeontological Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing. Chengjiang is an underdeveloped county having rich phosphate deposits above and below the formation holding the lagerstätte. They have been exploited in part through efforts that began at about the same time that Hou Xian-guang discovered the deposits that bear these exceptional fossils, with phosphate mining bringing in some 2/3 of the county's revenue in 2003. Efforts were made to close the region to mining in a bid to support the county's bid for listing as a World Heritage Site, given the scientific significance of the fossils. A consequence of this was renewed mining efforts in the region, which threatened the fossil-bearing strata due to erosion, slumping of overburden, and simple destruction by the mining efforts. Chengjiang County faces the dilemma between calls for preservation of the treasure trove of early Cambrian fossils to which it is steward and the economic reliance it has on the phosphate industry, and the difficulty of finding a balance between exploitation and restoration of the land while this is still possible.〔 ==Gallery of fossils== File:Misszhouia longicaudata 2.jpg|''Misszhouia longicaudata'' File:Heliomedusa orienta.jpg|''Heliomedusa orienta'' File:Leanchoilia illecebrosa.jpg|''Leanchoilia illecebrosa'' File:Haikouella lanceolata China.jpg|''Haikouella lanceolata'' 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Chengjiang County」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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