Expert hopes fossil find will spark society’s love for science

A vertebrate paleontologist said on Friday that the recent find of the first dinosaur fossil in Hong Kong could hopefully spark society’s love for science and increase students’ interest in the subject.

Secretary for Development Bernadette Linn Hon-ho revealed earlier that the Agricultural, Fisheries and Conservation Department discovered the city's first-ever dinosaur fossil - believed to be from the Cretaceous period, which spanned about 145 million to 66 million years ago.

She said the department had uncovered the fossils while conducting regular specimen collections several years ago, and more dinosaur fossils are expected to be discovered on Port Island, an outlying island in the northeastern New Territories.

Michael Pittman, assistant professor at the school of life sciences at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, told a radio program this morning that Hong Kong itself has many rocks left from the Cretaceous and Jurassic periods.

Currently, many high mountains consist of volcanic rocks that appeared during the dinosaur era, with a small portion being sedimentary rocks, he said, adding that any traces of large vertebrate animals found in such rocks are highly likely to be dinosaur fossils.

Meanwhile, the expert said Port Island was definitely not an island during the dinosaur era, with the rocks there similar to those in the northern part of Heyuan - a city in Guangdong well-known for the discovery of dinosaur egg fossils.

He hopes that Hong Kong can unearth more dinosaur fossils and that such discoveries can spark the public's interest in science, attracting children to learn more about it.

Read more: People urged to avoid Port Island as experts search for more fossils