Hezheng Paleo-Organism Fossils National Geopark, Gansu

This geopark is located in Linxia Hui Autonomous Prefecture, Gansu Province. In August 2009, the Ministry of Land and Resources approved it as one of the 5th batch of national geoparks. It is characterised by palaeo-organism fossils in Late Cenozoic strata. More than 80 sites with vertebrate fossils have been found in the Hezheng area. The fossils belong to four types of Late Cenozoic vertebrate fauna. From bottom to top, they are Paraceratherium fauna buried in Late Oligocene red gravels (approximately 30 million years old), Platybelodon fauna buried in Middle Miocene grey fluvial-lacustrine sandstones (approximately 12 million years old), Hipparion fauna buried in Late Miocene red mudstone (approximately 10 million years old) and Equus fauna buried in Early Pleistocene loess deposits (approximately 2 million years old).