In ancient my country, people had little knowledge of paleontological fossils, but they had a long history of utilizing fossils. As early as the Neolithic Age 6,000 years ago, our ancestors had begun to use fossils to make various stationery, decorations, etc. Jewelry made from coal spirit has been found at some Neolithic sites. In the early Han Dynasty, people regarded amber as a treasure and listed it as an important jewelry raw material along with jade. In the Jin Dynasty, some people used limestone containing trilobite fossils to make inkstones. In the Qing Dynasty, people used mammoth teeth to make beads or various handicrafts. In addition to decoration, most of the "dragon bones" used in traditional Chinese medicine are also paleontological fossils.
The exploration of the causes and mechanisms of fossil formation is a process of transformation from myth to science. Ancient my country failed to form a systematic scientific theory on this. The earliest book recording fossils in my country should be the important ancient book of the Pre-Qin Dynasty - "The Classic of Mountains and Seas". The book believes that the "dragon bones" buried in the stones are the remains of the water and fire monsters that appeared on Mount Venus. Yan Zhenqing, a calligrapher of the Tang Dynasty, recorded in "The Immortal Altar of Magu Mountain in Nancheng County, Fuzhou City, Fuzhou City in the Tang Dynasty" that the clam shells on Magu Mountain in Fuzhou City, Jiangxi Province were the result of the vicissitudes of life. This is a very scientific idea. Shen Kuo, a famous politician and scientist in the Northern Song Dynasty, was the first ancient Chinese scholar to use paleontological fossils to scientifically explain paleogeographic changes. When Shen Kuo was a local official in Shaanxi, he made a detailed description and record of the "bamboo shoots" fossils discovered (actually new reed trees from the Triassic period), and believed that the "bamboo shoots" fossils reflected the low terrain and humid climate of the area. , suitable for the growth of bamboo, and then gradually became dry.
After Shen Kuo until the late Qing Dynasty, ancient Chinese scholars did not advance their understanding of paleontological fossils. At this time, the West had initially formed a modern theoretical framework for paleontological stratigraphy. With the development of the Westernization Movement in the late Qing Dynasty and the influx of Western scholars to China for geological exploration, my country's paleontology has entered the track of continued development.