A primary school teacher in east China's Anhui Province has trekked among mountainous areas to collect abundant fossils, dating back 300,000 years ago.

Zhang Lifa, 40, is a nature science teacher of Xifengling Primary School in Yefushan Township. He has picked up over 1,000 pieces of fossils in over 20 types of animals and plants belonging to the middle Pleistocene era.

Zhang's collection has been authenticated rare and valuable by experts with the Anhui Provincial Archaeological Research Institute. Among his most valuable pieces are fossils of pearls, vertebrates, plant seeds, bird bones and shells.

The avid collector dates back his zest for fossils to last May when trying to pick some unique stones as teaching utensils. "I happened to find a lovely pearl-shaped stone in a mining site one day and took it home. I later found out in a science textbook that it was an invaluable shell fossil."

"From then on, I spent all my spare time hunting for fossils in the mountains," he said.

Experts say Zhang's findings are helpful to their research on the evolution of ancient wildlife and physical geography. Su Fang, director of local historical relics administration, said the mountain of Xifengling, where Zhang found the fossils, is teeming with the fossils of ancient life forms.

(Xinhua News Agency April 6, 2006)