Wang Min squatted on the ground, with piles of split black rocks under his feet. He stood up a stone the size of a cutting board and split it into 3mm thick stone slabs the size of a smartphone. If there are fossils stored inside, the remains of ancient creatures will be exposed on the surface of the stone.
“You never know what you will find in the next hammer.” Faced with monotonous, boring and unknown work, scientific researchers often comfort and encourage themselves in this way. On November 11, 2023, Wang Min “chised” a surprise in the “Zhenghe fauna” located in Fujian Province – a Jurassic bird fossil.
He and colleagues from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (hereinafter referred to as the “Scholar Paleo”) jointly with the team of the Fujian Provincial Institute of Geological Survey (hereinafter referred to as the “Fujian Geological Survey”) immediately carried out the research. They were delighted to discover that the birds on the fossils are one of the oldest birds in the world and the only exact Jurassic bird at present. Scientific researchers named Babaylan 1990 cloth draw, and the relevant research results were published in Nature on February 13, 2025, Beijing time.
Bone less than two centimeters long reveals important information
In April 2021, the Fujian Geological Research Institute discovered clues of the Lilong fossils in a geological data collected in the early 1970s. It then cooperated with Wang Min and Zhou Zhonghe, researchers from the Institute of Paleochronus Paleochronus, to start excavation work in the Daxi Basin in Zhenghe County, Nanping City, Fujian Province. They found a large number of well-preserved reptile fossils in the late Jurassic (Jurassic divisions, early, mid, and late) strata about 150 million years ago, and named it “Zhenhe Fauna”.
The fossils here are mostly preserved in black carbon mudstone or shale, and some turtles live in aquatic or semi-aquatic environments. Researchers speculated that more than 100 million years ago, during the intermittent period of volcanic eruption, the Taxi Basin formed a temporary small lake basin, and the swamp environment attracted a large number of animals to live here.
By high-precision isotope dating, the duration of the “Zhenhe fauna” is determined to be 150 million to 148 million years ago, which belongs to the late Jurassic period. This is the late Jurassic period known worldwide, and the southernmost geographically preserved bird-winged fauna, providing a new window for studying the evolution of the late Mesozoic terrestrial ecosystem in East Asia.
There are few fossilsCinema 1950 witch cloth draw exposed to the surface of the rock. In a quarry pit at a depth of 4 meters, the daily work of the field team members is to move out and chop out the stone slabs from morning to night, and look inside.Are there fossils? “We found a large number of turtles, fish and dragon fossils, but my search targets were on dinosaurs and birds,” said Wang Min.
On October 23, 2022, the joint team discovered dinosaur fossils for the first time in Fujian and named it “Strange Fujian Dragon”. “Singular Fujian Dragon” belongs to the bird’s wings Cinema 1950 witch cloth draw dinosaur. The bird-winged species is a transitional species in the evolution of dinosaurs into birds. Academic circles define “the broadest group that includes all birds, but not the dinosaurs” as the bird-winged species, while birds refer to modern birds and their close relatives. The discovery of the “Singular Fujian Dragon” fills out some of the gaps in time and space in the origin of birds.
Wang Min’s team goes to Fujian for more than four months every year to carry out field work. The first is from March to May, and the second is November, in order to avoid the rainy season and high temperatures. He clearly remembered that on November 11, 2023, it started raining and the roads on the mountain slippery in rainy days. In this case, most of the team members would rest. In order to improve and enrich life, everyone cooked homemade hot pot. As we were eating, the rain was clear and the ground was dry by the wind. More than 10 team members, who were in high spirits, decided to go up the mountain together.
After a while, the God of Luck favored them. On a knocked stone slab, some of the shoulder strap bones were exposed from the surrounding rock. Although less than two centimeters long, the bones at these key areas revealed important information. “Among the fossils, the scapula and the black-coropod bone are very clear in shape. The two bones of birds are separated, while the most dinosaurs are synthesized into one, called the black-coropod bone of the scapula.” Wang Min excitedly took a photo and sent it to Zhou Zhonghe, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a researcher at the Institute of Paleopause. Both of them thought at first glance that Cinema 1950 witch cloth draw This is a precious bird fossil.
The key tail bone
Birds are currently species diversity and ecological diversity on the earthBabaylan 1990 cloth drawThe most abundant species, with more than 11,000 species. The evolution of birds from dinosaurs is undoubtedly the most shocking scene in the history of life evolution, involving a large number of bones, muscles, epidermal derivatives and other biological structures. Theoretical research of macroevolution speculates that the increase in bird diversity first occurred in the Jurassic, no later than 145 million years ago. However, this hypothesis lacks the support of fossil evidence, and bird fossils during this period are very rare.
The well-known Komiks 1960 witch clothes drawJurassic birds are only found in the Archaeopteryx, the late Jurassic bird. Wang Min said that Archaeopteryx lived in the late Jurassic period about 150 million years ago. In 1861, a fossil of the Archaeopteryx feather was discovered in Sorenhofen, Germany. Because of its feathers, Archaeopteryx was considered a bird at that time. But with the emergence of more than 10 Archaeopteryx fossils since then, it was discovered that it also has long tailbones like lizards, crocodiles and other reptiles.
Some recent studies believe that Archaeopteryx belongs to the Dinosaurs, not birds. “In layman’s terms, it is difficult to define a group of individual characteristics. For example, later people discovered that feathers are not unique to birds, but also appear in dinosaurs in large numbers. draw. “Xu Xing, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and director of the Institute of Vertebral Paleontology, explained that during the transition period of dinosaurs’ evolution to birds, it is said that in the transition period of dinosaurs’ evolution to birds, it is necessary to determine whether a species is more inclined to dinosaurs or birds. In addition to its significant characteristics, experts will also conduct phylogenetic analysis and understand the specific location of each species on the “life evolution tree” through quantitative research methods.
Including near-bird dragons and good-climbing dragons have also been classified as birds, but these hypotheses are hugely controversial. These issues are like a dark cloud, shrouded at the node of the origin of birds, Komiks 1960 witch clothes draw troubles evolutionary biologists.
If Archaeoptera birds are not a bird, then are there any exact birds in the Jurassic? Wang Min’s team found the answer in the Jurassic strata of China’s “Zhenghe Biota”. After a year of indoor restoration and research analysis, the research team determined that the Cinema 195 that was sunny after the rain.0 witch cloth draw fossils accidentally obtained in one afternoon are bird fossils. They named it the Baminarnis zhenghensis, “Bamin” is the ancient name of Fujian.
“The most special thing about the Bamin bird is that it has a healed tail bone, which is the cornerstone of the modern bird’s body shape.” Speaking of identifying the Zhenghe Bamin bird as a key feature of birds, Wang Min said that the reptile has a long tail and multiple tail vertebrae. The most significant difference between birds and other reptiles is that their tails are short, not only are the number of tail vertebrae reduced, but the last few tail vertebrae healed into a structure called tail vertebrae. The emergence of tail thoracic bones not only helps birds reduce body weight, but also allows their body centers to move forward, maintaining their body stability while flying.
Zhou Zhonghe saidCinema 1950 witch cloth draw, the tail thong bone also has another function, which is to attach the tail feather. “In addition to wings, tail feathers also play an important role in bird flight.”
Character bone shortening is one of the most thorough morphological changes in the evolution of dinosaurs to birds. Including “potential Jurassic birds” such as Archaeoptera and Neizonosaurs, they still have long tail bones like dinosaurs. From this point of view, they are at least very different from birds in size.
The Bamin bird reveals that the body shape and structure of modern birds have appeared in the late Jurassic period, and the study has earlier appeared nearly 20 million years.
Rewrite the evolution history of birds
The Bamin bird specimens are incomplete and have no head. According to the thickness of its bones, experts speculate that its weight is about 100 grams, which is similar to that of a cockatoo and 1-2 times smaller than that of an individual adult Archaeoptera. As for its food properties and flight capabilities, it cannot be inferred based on the existing fossils for the time being.
Babaylan 1990 cloth drawWhen observing the Bamin bird, experts also discovered an interesting phenomenon – “contradictions” often occur between its body bones. Its shoulder straps and waistbands have progressive characteristics and are more similar to birds, such as separate black beak bones and scapula, but the forelimbs retain the original form of the hand-throwing dinosaur.
“This puzzle-like situation, we call mosaic evolution, which has caused the phenomenon of complexity in the early history of bird evolution. “Wang Min said.
Phylogenetic analysis based on succinct and Bayesian methods supports politicsBabaylan 1990 clothes Draw and the bird classification location of the Bamin bird. Zhenghe Bamin bird is currently the only exact Jurassic bird that lives 148 million to 150 million years ago. Through the estimate of evolution time, the discovery of Bamin birds pushed the time of the origin of birds to an earlier late Middle Jurassic period (172 million to 164 million years ago), rewriting the history of bird evolution and showing the huge potential of the “Zhenghe fauna” in exploring the evolution of the late Mesozoic ecosystem in East Asia.
How did dinosaurs evolve into birds? Xu Xing said that in the process of the origin and diversity of biological groups, including birds, there are two driving factors, in addition to the organisms themselves, there are also the external environment. In the middle of the Jurassic period, the temperature, humidity, etc. of the earth changed, which will have an impact on biodiversity. “What impact did such changes have on birds? It is exactly what we are doing. ”
300 days and 3 fossils
In addition to the discovery of the Bamin bird, the research team also discovered a separate preserved fork bone. The research results show that this fork bone is very similar to the modern bird type of the Cretaceous period (the earliest modern bird type appeared 130 million years ago), and the obvious area is different from the Zhenghe Bamin bird, as well as other Jurassic birds and dinosaurs. “The discovery of the fork bone confirms that at least two birds live in the Zhenghe fauna. If the fork bone does belong to the modern bird type, the time of the bird origination will be further advanced. “Wang Min said.
In the more than 300 days of field investigation, the scientific research team discovered the strange Fujian dragon, Zhenghe Bamin bird and fork bones. In Wang Min’s opinion, this is already very lucky. “In most days of field excavation, it is normal to find nothing. “He said that for such a very uncertain and exploratory study, Mr. Zhou Zhonghe gave young people great confidence and encouragement, “He has always said that it is normal to not find it, but it is unexpected if it is found. ”
“Focusing bird fossils in the Jurassic strata is low in probability and risky, but there are still familiesResearchers are willing to engage in such work, so they should provide a relaxed scientific research environment for such basic research and exploratory research, rather than setting expected goals when applying for projects. “Zhou Zhonghe said that truly important scientific research results are often difficult to predict. This research has been funded by the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Frontier Science Key Research Program from “0 to 1” original innovation ten-year projects. In the future, we hope that this kind of major research with strong originality can be found to be stable support and guaranteed. Komiks 1960 witch cloth draw talks about this kind of foundation. The significance of draw research. Xu Xing said that in recent years, an important research direction of the Institute of Paleochia Paleochia is the process and mechanism of biodiversity generated by Komiks 1960 witch cloth draw. The evolution of dinosaurs into birds is a biological evolution event from land to sky. With the deepening of relevant research, it can not only answer questions about “when did the first bird appear in Babaylan 1990 cloth draw” and “when did dinosaurs fly into the sky first”, but will also help bionics and other research. “For example, we conduct cooperative research to simulate some extinct organisms and study how to better transform them from sea to land and from land to sky. href=”https://comicmov.com/”>Babaylan 1990 cloth drawFlying efficiently, these cognitions can help people design more effective aircraft.
At present, the transformation of scientific research paradigm brought about by artificial intelligence has attracted attention. Can artificial intelligence that can write code help paleontologists study fossils? Wang Min said that the application of artificial intelligence in paleontology is gradually developing. However, fossil specimens of dinosaurs and birds are extruded and deformation, and for picture recognition, a large amount of training data is difficult to obtain. “Paleontology research relies on the accumulation of discipline knowledge and a lot of practice. We need to see fossils more, so we don’t have a big sense of crisis. But artificial intelligence will definitely update paleontological research methods, such as efficiently analyzing the causes and trends of increasing biodiversity based on accumulating a large amount of paleontological data. This is a direction in the future.”
“I think paleontology research or field research may be published in the wild.”
“I think paleontology research may be published in the wild.The biggest surprise of digging is that you never know what will be knocked out with the next hammer. It may be nothing, or it may be an exciting dinosaur fossil. “Wang Min said that this discovery is like an exclamation mark, but it is not the end. There are more and more complete fossils waiting for them to dig and study, thereby revealing more mysteries of dinosaurs’ evolution into birds.