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. Science and technology researchers named it “Zhenhe Bamin Bird”, and the relevant research results were published in Nature on February 13, 2025, Beijing time.
The bones of less than two centimeters long Cinema 1950 witch cloth draw revealed 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. Then, in cooperation 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.
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 break 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 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”. “Strange Fujian Dragon” belongs to the bird-winged 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 time is from March to May, and the second time 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 currently the most diverse and ecologically diverse species on the earth, 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 the 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, Archaeoptera was considered a bird at that time. But after thatWith the emergence of more than 10 Archaeoptera fossils, Komiks 1960 witch cloth draw People have found that it also has long tailbones like lizards, crocodiles, etc.
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 Paleopause, explained that during the transition period of dinosaurs’ evolution to birds, judging that a species is more biased towards dinosaurs or birds. In addition to 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 bird-dragons and specialized in Cinema 1950 witch cloth drawBabaylan 1990 cloth drawBabaylan 1990 cloth drawAs well-known in Cinema 1950 witch cloth drawBabaylan 1990 cloth drawAs well-known in Cinema 1950 witch cloth drawBabaylan 1990 cloth drawAs well-known in Cinema 1950 witch cloth drawBabaylan 1990 cloth drawAs well-known in Cinema 1950 witch cloth drawBabaylan 1990 cloth drawAs well-known in Cinema 1950 witch cloth drawBabaylan 1990 cloth drawAs well-known in Cinema 1950 witch cloth drawBabaylan 1990 cloth drawA, however, these hypotheses are highly controversial. These problems are like a dark cloud, shrouded at 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 accidentally obtained on the afternoon after the rain belonged to birds Babaylan 1990 cloth draw, which they named the Baminarnis zhenghensis, and Komiks 1960 witch cloth draw “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’s tail is very long and has multiple tails Komiks 1960 witch cloth draw vertebrae. The most significant difference between birds and other reptiles is birdsThe tail of the class is very short, not only does the number of caudal vertebrae decrease, but the last few caudal vertebrae heal into a structure called caudal plexus. The emergence of tail thoracic bones not only helps birds lose weight, but also allows their body weight to move forward, maintaining their continuous stability during flight.
ZhouBabaylan 1990 cloth drawZhonghe said that 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 specimen is incomplete and has no head. According to the thickness of its bones, experts speculate that it weighs about 100 grams, which is similar in size to the cockatoo. Its body shape is 1-2 times smaller than that of the individual adult Archaeoptera. As for its food and flight ability, it is inferred based on the existing fossils that are temporarily unavailable.
When observing the Bamin Bird, experts also discovered an interesting phenomenon – “contradictory” often arises between its body and bones. Its shoulder straps and waistbands have progressive characteristics and are more similar to birds, such as separate black berries and scapula, but the forelimbs retain the original form of the thief dinosaur.
“This situation similar to a puzzle is called mosaic evolution, which has caused a phenomenon of complexity in the early history of bird evolution,” said Wang Min.
Phylogenetic analysis based on the simplified method and BayeuxCinema 1950 witch cloth drawSifa supports the bird classification location of Zhenghe Bamin birds. Zhenghe Bamin Bird is the only exact gnome at presentLuoji birds live between 148 million and 150 million years ago. Through the estimation of evolution time, the discovery of the Bamin birds advanced 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 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 there are two driving factors in the origin and diversity of biological groups, including birds. In addition to the organisms themselves, there is also an external environment. In the middle of the Jurassic period, the temperature, humidity, etc. of the earth changed, which would have an impact on biodiversity. “What impact did such a change have on the production of Cinema 1950 witch cloth draw? 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 fork bone. The research results show that this fork bone is very similar to the modern bird species of the Cretaceous period (the earliest modern bird species appeared 130 million years ago), and is significantly different from the Zhenghe Bamin birds, as well as other Jurassic birds and dinosaurs. “The discovery of wishbone confirms that at least two birds live in Zhenghe fauna. If the wishbone does belong to the current bird type, the time of the bird’s origin will be further advanced,” said Wang Min.
After more than 300 days of field investigation, the scientific research team discovered the strange Fujian dragon, Zhenghe Bamin bird and fork bone. In Wang Min’s opinion, this is already very lucky. “In most days of field excavation, it is normal to get 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 find it, but it is unexpected if it is found.”
“The probability and risk of finding bird fossils in the Jurassic strata are low and the risk is high, but there are still scientific researchers willing to engage in such work, so it 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,Important 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, an important research direction of the Institute of Paleochia is the process and mechanism of the emergence of biodiversity. The evolution of dinosaurs into birds is a biological evolution event from land to the sky. With the in-depth research on the related Komiks 1960 witch cloth draw, it can not only answer questions about “when did the first bird appear” and “when did the dinosaurs fly into the sky first”, but will also help bionics and other research. “比如我Babaylan 1990 cloth draw们开展合作研究，模拟一些灭绝的生物，研究它们从海上到陆地、从陆地到Cinema 1950 witch cloth draw天空的转化过程中，如何更有效率地飞行，这些认知可以帮助人们设计更有效的飞行器。
当下，人工智能带来的科研范式Komiks 1960 witch cloth draw变革引发关注。可以写代码的人工智能，能帮古生物学家研究化石吗？王敏说，人工智能在古生物学中的应用正逐步开展。但恐龙和鸟的化石标本存在挤压变形的情况，对于图片识别来说，大量的训练数据是很难获得的。“古生物研Cinema 1950 witch cloth draw究依靠学科知识的累积和大量实践，看化石要看得多，所以我们并没有太大的危机感。 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 come out with the next hammer. It may be nothing, or it may be that people Komiks 1960 witch cloth drawThe excited dinosaur fossil.” Wang Min said that this discovery was like an exclamation mark, but it was not the end. There are more and more complete fossils waiting for them to dig and study, thus uncovering more mysteries of dinosaurs’ evolution into birds.