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 a 3mm thick slab the size of a smartphone. If there were fossils inside, the remains of the Paleozoic Cinema 1950 witch cloth draw objects on the surface of the stone would be exposed.
“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 it “Zhenghe Bamin Bird”, 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 Jurassic (Jurassic division early, middle 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.
Through high-precision isotope dating, the duration of the “Zhenhe fauna” was 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.
Fossils are rarely 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., see if there are fossils inside. “We found a large number of turtles, fish and dragon fossils, but my search target was on Komiks 1960 witch cloth draw 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”. “Strange Fujian Dragon” belongs to the bird-winged dinosaur. Babaylan 1990 cloth drawBabaylan 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 bird wings, 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 black beard bone are very clear in shape. The two bones of birds are separated, while most dinosaurs heal into one, which is called the scapula and black beard bone.” 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 this was a precious bird fossil.
The key tail bone
Birds are the most abundant species and ecological diversity on the planet, 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 changes in bones, muscles, epidermal derivatives and other biological structures. Theoretical research on macroevolution speculates that the increase in bird diversity first occurred in the Jurassic, that is, no later than 145 million years ago. However, this hypothesis lacks support for fossil evidence, and bird fossils were very rare during this period..
At present, only the well-known Jurassic birds are found in the Archaeopteryx (Archaeopteryx) in the Late Jurassic birds in Germany. Wang Min said that Archaeoptera lived in the late Jurassic period about 150 million years ago. In 1861, a fossil of the feather of Archaeoptera was discovered in Sorenhofen, Germany. Due to its feathers Cinema 1950 witch cloth draw, Archaeoptera was considered a bird at that time. But with the emergence of more than 10 Archaeoptera fossils since then, it was discovered that it also has a long tailbone like lizards, crocodiles and other reptiles.
Some recent studies believe that Archaeoptera belongs to the species of Dinosaur, 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.” Xu Xing, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and director of the Institute of Paleochnology, explained that during the transition period of dinosaurs to bird evolution, it is determined that a species is more biased towards dinosaurs or birds. In addition to its significant characteristics, experts also conduct phylogenetic analysis and understand the specific location of each species on the “life evolution tree” through quantitative research methods.
The birds and dragons, including birds and dragons, were also classified as birds, but these hypotheses are highly controversial. These questions are like a dark cloud, hiding the nodes of the origin of birds, plaguing evolutionary biologists.
If Archaeoptera is 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 fossils unexpectedly obtained on the afternoon when the rain first cleared, belonged to bird fossils. They named it the Baminornis zhenghensis, which is an ancient name in Fujian.
“The most special thing about the Bamin bird is that it has a healing tail bone, which constitutes a modern bird bodyThe cornerstone of type. “When talking about the key characteristics of identifying Zhenghe Bamin birds as birds, Wang Min said that reptiles have long tails and multiple tail vertebrae. The most significant difference between birds and other reptiles is that their tails are short. Not only does the number of tail vertebrae decrease, but the last few tail vertebrae heal into a structure called Komiks 1960 witch cloth draw. The emergence of tail trophs can not only help birds lose weight, but also move their body center of gravity forward, maintaining continuous stability during flight. Zhou Zhonghe said that there is another href=”https://comicmov.com/”>Cinema 1950 witch cloth draw function is to attach tail feathers. “In addition to wings, tail feathers also play an important role in bird flight. ”
The shortening of the tailbone is one of the most thorough morphological changes in the evolution of dinosaurs into birds. Including “potential Jurassic birds” such as Archaeoptera and Neizoosaurs, they still have long tailbones like dinosaurs. From this point of view, they are very different from birds in their body shape at least.
Bamin birds reveal that the body shape structure of modern birds has appeared in the late Jurassic period. Research has earlier appeared the important characteristics represented by tailbone by nearly 20 million years.
Rewrite the history of bird evolution
The Bamin bird specimens are incomplete and have no heads. According to the thickness of its bones, Babaylan 1990 cloth drawExperts speculate that its weight is about 100 grams, similar to that of cockatoo, and its size is 1-2 times smaller than that of an individual adult Archaeoptera. As for its food and flight ability, it cannot be inferred based on the existing fossils.
When observing the Bamin bird, Babaylan 1990 cloth drawThe experts also discovered an interesting phenomenon—there are often “contradictory” 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 thief dinosaur.
“This puzzle-like situation, we call it mosaic evolution, which has caused the history of bird evolutionEarly complexity phenomenon. “Wang Min said.
Phylogenetic analysis based on simplified and Bayesian methods supports the bird classification location of Zhenghe Bamin birds. Zhenghe Bamin birds are currently the only exact Jurassic birds, living between 148 million and 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, showing the “Zhenghe Dynamics” “Groups” are exploring the evolution of the late Mesozoic ecosystem in East Asia.
How did dinosaurs evolve into birds? Xu Xing said that in 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 the work 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 of Babaylan 1990 cloth draw type appeared 130 million years ago), and is significantly 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 origin of the bird type 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 high uncertain and exploratory study, Mr. Zhou Zhonghe gave young people great confidence and encouragement, “He always said that it is normal to not find it, but it is unexpected if you find it. ”
“Focusing bird fossils in the Jurassic strata is low and has high risk, but there are still scientific researchers willing to engage in such Komiks 1960 witch cloth draw work, so it should provide a relaxed scientific research environment for this type of basic and exploratory research, rather than setting expected goals when applying for projects. “Zhou Zhonghe said, trueImportant scientific research results are often difficult to predict. This research has been funded by the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Frontier Science Key Research Plan from “0 to 1” original innovation ten-year projects. In the future, we hope that such major research discoveries with strong originality can be stable supported and guaranteed. Talking about the significance of this type of basic research, Xu Xing said that in recent years, a more important research direction of the Institute of Paleochia is the process and mechanism of biodiversity generation. Dinosaurs evolved into birds, which 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” and “when did the dinosaurs fly into the sky at first”, but will also help bionics and other research. “For example, we have carried out cooperative research on how to simulate some extinct organisms and study how they fly more efficiently during the transformation from sea to land and from land to sky. These cognitions can help people design more efficient aircraft. At present, the transformation of scientific research paradigm brought 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 underway. But why is it that Babaylan 1990 Cloth drawThe fossil specimens of dragons 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 subject knowledge and a lot of practice to see the chemicals. Babaylan 1990 cloth draw has to see a lot, 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 for the future. ”
”I think the biggest surprise of paleontology research or field excavation 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 was like an exclamation mark, but it was not the end Cinema 1950 witch clothes draw. There are more and more complete fossils Cinema 1950 witch cloth draw waiting for them to dig and study, thus uncovering more mysteries of dinosaurs’ evolution to birds.