CHINA is in the midst of a fossil gold rush unlike any the world has ever seen. This is most evident in the north-eastern province of Liaoning, where peasant farmers have dug thousands of 3-metre-deep holes in search of the region’s feathered fossils. The specimens they have found have revolutionised our knowledge of dinosaurs and their kin.
But as dinosaur mania has swept China it has brought the country face to face with the tough issue of who should own the fossils. Last month, matters came to a head in the village of Shaping, in central Henan province 1000 kilometres…
