On the north bank of Fuxian Lake in Chengjiang County, Yunnan Province sits a straw-hat-shaped mountain （ call） Maotian Mountain, a 512-hectare site is praised as a "world-class treasure trove of fossils" by the international scientific community. On July 1, 1984, young paleontologists in China discovered a fossil of the arthropod （节肢动物化石） with a long tail in Maotian Mountain. " we had studied in China were just shell of fossils. The arthropods, lifelike fossils with legs, which belonged to fossils of soft-bodied animals, are game changer in the research of China's paleontology （古生物学）", Hou Xianguang, a paleontologist said.
Scientists have obtained a large number of research results on Chengjiang Fossil Site. The reason why Chengjiang fauna （动物群） is great significance is that it is closely related to the emergence of the animal tree of life.
Up to now, more than 20 phyla and more than 280 species （ record）in the Chengjiang Fossil Site, of which, 80% are new species. On July 1, 2012, the Chengjiang Fossil Site （ be） inscribed on the World Heritage List by UNESCO, （ become） China' s first World Heritage Site for paleontological fossils.
The UNESCO evaluation says the Chengjiang Fossil Site is one of the （ early） records of a complex marine ecosystem of the early Cambrian communities. The property displays excellent quality of fossil （ preserve）. It presents an exceptional record of the rapid diversification of life on Earth during the early Cambrian period.
