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 it Babaylan as “Zhenghe Bamin Bird”, and the relevant research results were published in Nature on February 1, 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 speculate that more than 100 million years ago, during the intermittent period of the volcanic eruption, the Daxi 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.
The fossils are less 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 to see if there are any fossils inside. “We sendA large number of turtles, fish and dragon fossils have appeared, but my search targets are on dinosaurs and birds. “Wang Min said. On October 23, 2022, the joint team discovered dinosaur fossils for the first time in Fujian and named it “Singular Fujian Dragon”. “Singular Fujian Dragon” belongs to the bird-winged groupCinema dinosaurs. The bird-winged group is a transitional species in the process of dinosaur evolution into birds. The academic community defines “the most generalized group that includes all birds, but not the dinosaurs” as bird-winged group, and birds refer to modern birds and their href=”https://comicmov.com/”>BabaylanClose relatives. The discovery of “Singular Fujian Dragon” fills out some gaps in the origin of birds in time and space.
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 remembers that November 11, 2023Babaylan It started raining in the sky, and the road to the mountain slippery on rainy days. In this case, most of the team members would rest. In order to improve and enrich their lives, everyone cooked homemade hot pot. While eating, the rain was clear and the ground was blown dry by the wind, more than 10 players 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 they were less than two centimeters long, the bones in these key parts revealed important information. “In the fossils, the scapula and black beak bones are very clear in shape. The two bones of birds are separated, while most dinosaurs heal into one, called the scapula and black beak bones. “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 Paleochia. Both of them thought at first glance that this was a precious bird fossil.
The key tail thong bone
Birds are currently the most abundant species and ecological diversity 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 of macroevolution speculates that the increase in bird diversity first occurred in the Jurassic, that is, no later than href=”https://comicmov.com/”>Komiks145 million years ago. However, this hypothesis lacks support for fossil evidence, and birds during this periodBabaylanFossils are very rare.
At present, only the well-known Jurassic birds are found in the late Jurassic birds in Germany (ArBabaylanchaeopteryx). Wang Min said that Archaeopteryx lived in the late Jurassic period about 150 million years ago. In 1861, a fossil of 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, it was found that it also had long tailbones like lizards, crocodiles and other reptiles. Some recent research believes 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, and they 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 to bird evolution, it is necessary to determine whether a species is more inclined toward 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 the near-bird dragons and the good climbing dragons are alsoCinema was once classified as birds, but these hypotheses are very controversial. These questions are like a dark cloud, shrouding the nodes of the origin of birds, plaguing evolutionary biologists.
If Archaeoptera birds are not birds, then are there any exact birds in the Jurassic? Wang Min’s team found the answer in the Jurassic strata of China’s “Zhenhe 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 were bird fossils, and they named it the Zhenghe Bamin Bird (BamiKomiksnornis zhenghensisKomiks), “Bamin” is the ancient name of Fujian. The most special place of the Bamin bird is that it has a healed tail bone, which is the cornerstone of the body shape of modern birds. “When talking about the key characteristics of identifying Zhenghe Bamin birds as birds, Wang Min said that the tail of reptiles is very long and has multiple tail vertebrae. The most significant difference between birds and other reptiles is that the tails of birds are very short, not only the number of tail vertebrae is reduced, but also the last few tail vertebraeHeals into a structure called tail bone. The emergence of tail thoracic bones not only helps birds lose weight, but also moves their body center of gravity forward, maintaining continuous stability during flight.
Zhou Zhonghe 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.
Babaylan 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 history of bird evolution
Bamin bird specimens and Komiks are incomplete and have no head. According to the thickness of its bones, experts speculate that it weighs about 100 grams, which is similar to that of cockatoos and is 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.
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 and Bayesian method supports the bird classification location of Zhenghe Bamin birds. The Zhenghe Bamin Bird is currently the only exact Jurassic bird that lives between 148 million and 150 million years ago. Through the estimation of evolution time, the discovery of the 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 there are two driving factors in the origin and diversity of biological groups, including birds, in addition to the organisms themselves, there is also the external environment. During the middle of the Jurassic period, the temperature, humidity, etc. of the earth changed, which would have an impact on biodiversity. “What exactly does such a change have had on birds is what we are doing.”
Komiks300 days and 3 fossils
In addition to the discovery of CinemaBamin birds, 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 development of the wishbone is confirmed that the two species of birds live in the Zhenghe fauna. If the wishbone does belong to the current bird type, the time of origin of the bird 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 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 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. Dinosaurs evolved into birds, which is a biological evolution event from land to the 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 conduct cooperative research 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 effective aircraft.
At present, scientific research brought by artificial intelligence bringsParadigm changes have 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, the fossil specimens of dinosaurs and birds are extruded and deformation. For picture recognition, it is difficult to obtain a large amount of training data. “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 great 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 Komiks in the future.”
“I think the biggest surprise of paleontology research or field excavation is that you never know what will be knocked out by the next hammer. Maybe nothing is it. Cinema may also 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, thus uncovering more mysteries of dinosaurs’ evolution into birds.