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Zhang He and his fossils
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Song Yingwen
LIKE a loving father, Zhang He caresses one of the items from his collection of fossils and speaks softly: "This bird was flying when a volcano beneath it suddenly erupted. Flame and lava spouted. The bird was captured by it in a split second and became part of the rock and millions of years later it is still frozen in a flying pose."
The affection he feels for his fossils is not merely for this specific stone containing the skeleton of a flying bird, but for all the items in his collection, which is packed in his small warehouse at the Shenzhen Fairy Lake Botanical Garden, over 5,000 pieces all told. Next month these fossils will be donated to the first museum of extinct life fossils in China -- the Shenzhen Extinct Life Fossils Museum in the Fairy Lake Botanical Garden. Zhang He, the amateur collector who lovingly assembled the pieces, will not be separated from his children -- he has been named curator for life.
"I decided to present my collection to the museum because fossils are the most amazing gift from mother nature. They carry the messages of life from millions of years ago and shed light on our questions about who we are and where we come from. They belong to the whole world," Zhang said.
These 5,000 fossils are not the first donation Zhang He has made, and certainly will not be the last. Two of his most important discoveries, the Confuciusornis Sanctus and the Zhangheotherium quinquescuspidens, have been donated for study to the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing. And in 1999 he helped to set up a petrified forest in the Shenzhen Fairy Lake Botanical Garden by presenting over 70 pieces of petrified wood from his collection. Later that same year, another petrified forest was set up in his hometown in Liaoning Province with his support and contribution.
Don't take him lightly just because he is an amateur collector. Both of the fossils he gave to the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology are of tremendous global importance in the scientific study of ancient life. The Confuciusornis Sanctus, the fossil of a species of bird which appeared much earlier than the archaeopteryx, previously thought to be the world's first bird, has caused a major rethinking of the origin of birds.
And the Zhangheotherium quinquescuspidens, which means "Zhang He's beast with five cusps on its teeth", the first complete fossil of a rare, long-extinct and very early mammal named after him, has helped to fill in a gap in the understanding of how humans evolved from ancient mammals. So important is this fossil that, according to the journal Nature, the world's most authoritative magazine on the natural sciences, it has played a key role in clarifying many branches of the mammalian family tree.
Zhang He seems to have a bit of trouble accepting his role in the world of science. After all, Zhang, in his later 40s, never set out to make a name for himself. "I've always wanted to do something important, but I'd never dreamed of being recorded in the history of natural science. I am a lucky guy," Zhang mused.
Poor guy with strong affection
Born into a poor family, Zhang later served as a trumpeter in a cultural troupe in the army. His life offered no hint that one day he would be immersed in the world of natural science. The motivation behind his future career, Zhang believes, would probably be his strong affection for artistic beauty.
Zhang's affection for art drove him into the hobby of making miniature trees and rockeries in his spare time after he retired from the army and worked as a member in the Jingzhou Song and Dance Troupe in Liaoning Province. At the place where he used to live, the western part of Liaoning, there were rich resources of rare stones and plants. While collecting rocks, he became fascinated by fossils. "These stones with amazing images of fishes and leaves held my eyes immediately. They are beautiful, but at the same time, also meaningful. So I changed my hobby to collecting fossils," Zhang recalled.
Collecting fossils requires huge sums of money. Almost every penny Zhang and his wife earned went into the pockets of the peasants who sold fossils, including all the pocket money he earned by selling self-made miniature rockeries and trees. Soon his house was packed with fossils, and later he had to take over a big warehouse lent by a friend, but the family was constantly struggling to get by.
"My heart breaks every time I think of the poor condition I put my wife and daughter in. They suffered a lot in those days," Zhang admits. He can still recall the pleading tone of his daughter asking for a bike and the desiring look in his wife's eye for a TV set.
"I couldn't afford to give them what they have wanted because fossils have taken over my life," Zhang said. There were quarrels between husband and wife and husband over his costly hobby, but it was always the wife who gave in.
Zhang's collection increased day by day, but the disappointed faces of his wife and daughter have become a source of guilt and bitterness for him.
Zhang's devotion to fossils was beyond the imagination of common people. He spent much time digging in remote and desolate areas searching for valuable fossils, surviving on a diet of water and home-made pancakes. Whenever he heard about new finds, he would rush to the spot regardless of the time and weather. He was completely obsessed.
To learn more about the messages conveyed by these amazing stones, Zhang He began to delve into archaeology. Without any background knowledge or previous training, Zhang picked up voluminous monographs on the subject and, as time went by, he evolved from an amateur collector to a specialist with rich knowledge in archaeology. And a good thing, too: had it not been for this knowledge, he wouldn't have recognized the importance of the Confuciusornis Sanctus and Zhangheotherium quinquescuspidens the moment they were shown to him, and these precious specimens wouldn't have been sent to the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology for scientific study. Who knows how many years scientists would have to wait until these findings were located again?
Smart guy with great aspirations
As a mature collector of fossils, Zhang He has even higher hopes for the future. "Nature belongs to everyone, and fossils, as treasures of nature, are no different. I've given all my fossils and petrified wood to the country, and my future plan is to introduce them to the world," Zhang said.
"Fossils convey a message of life to people. By introducing them I hope to help people see the need to protect nature. We should leave something to our descendents, shouldn't we? Otherwise fishes and grasses in fossils would be more meaningful than us, right?" Zhang explained grandly.
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