The local geology and the desert climate made it possible to discover a number of important fossil sites in the area, including China's largest cluster of fossilized
dinosaur tracks and China's largest
dinosaur. Important
dinosaur sites are associated with the
Lianmuqin Formation (named after
Lianmuqin Town) and the
Subashi Formation (named after Subashi Village () in
Tuyugou Township (). The
Shanshanosaurus is named after Shanshan. In 2008–2011, a team of German and Chinese paleontologists discovered and studied an "enormous" accumulation of
Jurassic turtle fossils at a site they nicknamed "
Mesa Chelonia", approximately NNE of Shanshan Town. It is estimated that at least 1,800 skeletons of freshwater turtles, preliminary identified as belonging to the
Annemys species were buried in this
bone bed, in a
stratigraphic layer probably belonging to the
Qigu Formation. The researchers suggest that during a drought the turtles congregating at one of the few remaining water sources, and died there once that last water hole dried out. Then the skeletons were transported to the present location by a
debris flow during a catastrophic rainfall event, forming a
Konzentrat-Lagerstätte. In June 2013, an incident in Lukchun lead to the deaths of dozens. ==Subdivisions==