Dr Ji Qiang and his colleagues discovered dinosaur fossils from China in western Liaoning three years ago. Follow-up research shows that this animal is 0.65 meters long and has very short primitive feathers; The head is relatively large, and the teeth are thick and sharp; The tail is extremely long and consists of fifty-four coccygeal vertebrae; The forelimbs are short and the hind limbs are long and stout. The skeleton structure of this animal has obvious characteristics of small theropod dinosaurs, but it has developed primitive feathers, which is a transitional animal from small theropod dinosaurs to primitive birds.

Based on this and combined with the characteristics of other early bird fossils, Ji Qiang proposed that in the process of the evolution of theropod dinosaurs to birds, the Chinese arowana began to appear original feathers; Protoarchaeopteryx and tail-feathered birds first developed flying feathers with symmetrical wings and feathers; The feathers of Archaeopteryx's flight feathers have become asymmetrical; Confucius birds and Great Wall birds have horny beaks and coccyx, and their flight feathers are very long. Protoarchaeopteryx and tail-feathered birds are the beginning of birds, and such creatures should be called "early birds"

The newly discovered dinosaur eggs were probably laid by a small dinosaur bird, which lived in a critical period of evolution from dinosaurs to birds.

It should be said that the origin of birds is a mystery. Now it is generally believed that birds originated from dinosaurs, and some people say that birds are close relatives of dinosaurs. The feathered dinosaurs and Confucius birds found in China and the archaeopteryx found in Germany all support this argument. But at present, the correctness of this statement is not 100% sure. Hou Lianhai, the descriptor of Confucius Bird, insisted that birds originated from early dinosaurs, not dinosaurs, from Du, a Confucius Bird with double skulls. So the early dinosaurs were birds? 9? The same ancestor of dinosaurs, crocodiles and lizards. Some people think that the feathers on the long scales are the symbol of the evolution of this non-dinosaur to birds. But this long-scale dragon is a contemporary product of dinosaurs. So this lie is not denied. The appearance time of birds is about 65.438+0.5 billion years in Mesozoic. In terms of dinosaur-bird evolution, there are actually many differences. For example, people think that dinosaurs that walked upright first moved from life on the ground to life in trees, and their upper limbs were still very small. After a while, these dinosaurs will jump from tree to tree with long upper limbs and feathers. Later, these feathered upper limbs became their parachutes and glided. Until finally, finally, wings that can fly. The feathered dinosaurs found in Jehol Formation, such as Sinosauropteryx, Tailfeather Dragon and Microraptor, are the direct evidence of the evolution of moa. Judging from the archaeopteryx stone, what was the ancestor of birds1500,000 years ago? 9? 7 has obvious characteristics of birds, but also has the characteristics of Ming Luan reptiles. What are the characteristics of its reptiles? 3? 0: there are teeth in the mouth; The tail consists of 18 ~ 2 1 separated coccyx; The forelimb has three independent learning bones, and the fingers are claws. Its birds are characterized by feathers, wings and "open" bone plates; The hind foot has four toes, and the front foot is called 1. As big as a crow, it can only glide but not fly. It is the "missing link" predicted by Darwin's theory of evolution in the evolution of birds at that time, and it is also a proof of the correctness of the theory of evolution. On the other hand, Confucius bird is based on archaeopteryx according to the anatomical characteristics of barley, such as the fusion of tail vertebrae into tail healds and beak of teeth. 3? 7 birds go further. Although Confucius bird still retains some reptilian features, such as a double-nest skull? 0? But there is no doubt that the relationship between Confucius and "reptiles" is even more embarrassing than the relationship between the latter and Archaeopteryx. Feather is one of the important topics. Because only by explaining the appearance of feathers can we really understand the origin of birds. It has always been thought that feathers come from scales, but now this view is offset by the observations that have been made. Some experts believe that the feathers of the seven birds are the same as those of the first brick bird, and they are the feathers of the fifth stage. Asymmetry between pinna and inner pinna, and hook connection between pinna branchlets. This is a common feather style of modern birds. Early feathered dinosaurs, such as thieves, had symmetrical feathers, which was the fourth stage of hair. In addition, feathers are made of β -keratin and so are scales. But its basal sheath, like mammalian hair, is composed of α -keratin white. However, it is hard to understand that in a short period of 320 thousand years, the evolution of birds has been so rapid. Due to the change of breeding nature and the emergence of bird crops, the toothed beak of Archaeopteryx has been reduced to Confucius' toothless horny beak. The 23-year-old coccygeal vertebra of Archaeopteryx had fused into coccyx when it was transferred to Confucius.