Unprecedented dinosaur remains uncovered in Hong Kong for the first time.
The fossils were uncovered on Port Island, a barren expanse of stones situated in the northeastern seas of the city, by Hong Kong's Agriculture, Fisheries, and Conservation Department in March, the administration announced in a press release on Wednesday.
Scientists believe that the bone fossils hail from a "massive ancient dinosaur" belonging to the Cretaceous era –– a time span exceeding 145 million to 66 million years that succeeded the Jurassic period.
Hong Kong's Minister of Development, Bernadette Linn, declared that "this discovery is of great importance and offers new proof for research into paleoecology in Hong Kong," according to the press release.
Since 1979, Port Island has been designated as a site of special scientific significance and is also part of Hong Kong's UNESCO Global Geopark –– a group of islands protected by an international agreement and primarily utilized for educational and sustainable development.
"Further investigations will be needed to pinpoint the dinosaur's species," officials mentioned, adding that Port Island and the larger country park will be off-limits for additional excavations and research. From Friday onwards, the dinosaur fossils will be on public display at Hong Kong's Heritage Discovery Centre.
Paleontologists maintain that this landmark discovery is a major achievement for Hong Kong, a city with a multifaceted geological background and frequent weather shifts.
"The only way we can stumble upon dinosaur fossils is if there's a portion of it exposed on the surface," Michael Pittman, an assistant professor of life sciences at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, told CNN, also indicating that the remnants might have been more eroded if researchers had arrived later.
To date, the only "dinosaur-period finds" Hong Kong has made have been plants and fish, Pittman explained.
Pittman further noted that the discovery of bodily fossils is uncommon in the region, as skeletal remains are not typically present in southern China, which is more famous for its dinosaur eggs.
However, since 2020, scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences have discovered dinosaur remains buried shallowly across nine locations in the southwestern province of Yunnan and conducted excavations.
Earlier this year, paleontologists in China discovered the fossils of a Gandititan cavocaudatus at a construction site in Jiangxi province. The fossils, estimated to date back 90 million years, marked the discovery of a new dinosaur species previously unseen in East Asia.
It's yet undetermined how long Port Island will remain closed to tourists.
"If they end up discovering a full skeleton of a big dinosaur or two dinosaurs, they might have to go back the following summer, and the one after that," Pittman said.
This significant fossil discovery in Hong Kong has the potential to contribute significantly to our understanding of paleoecology not only in Hong Kong but also in Asia as a whole. The discovery of these dinosaur fossils on Port Island, a part of Hong Kong's UNESCO Global Geopark, highlights the region's previously uncooked potential for dinosaur fossil discoveries.
