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? 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 time when birds appeared was 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? It has obvious characteristics of birds, but it also has the characteristics of reptiles. What are the characteristics of its reptiles? 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. Birds go further. Although Confucius bird still retains some reptilian features, such as a double-nest skull? But there is no doubt that the relationship between Confucius and "reptiles" is 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.

During the period of 1996, researchers of China Academy of Sciences discovered a group of small feathered theropod dinosaur fossils, which were named "loong Birds" by scientists because they were very similar to birds.

This discovery gave scientists hope that dinosaurs had feathers.

Scientists have found that the feathers of the dragon bird are much more advanced than those of the archaeopteryx. Their shape and structure are the same as those of modern birds, with developed feather axes and typical feather branches.

There has been a heated debate in academic circles about the relationship between dinosaurs and birds. "Therefore, the key to studying this problem is to confirm that bird feathers do exist in theropods, and we must find the exact and reliable structure of typical feathers in undisputed dinosaurs." Dr. Xu Xing said.

The fact that the emperor dragon had feathers proves once again that dinosaurs and birds had the same ancestor.

In the journal Nature published in 6543810.7, Dr. Xu Xing described the dinosaur fossils they found as follows: judging from the morphology, these fossils belong to a kind of light dinosaur about10.5 meters long and lived about10.28 billion years ago. Fossils are well preserved and skulls are basically well preserved, which is extremely rare, because the skull bones of dinosaurs are quite thin and it is difficult to preserve them completely.

Xu Xing named this newly discovered dinosaur species Tommy Tam, and its English name "Di-Long" is China's Chinese pinyin "Tommy Tam", which means the emperor of dinosaurs. It was named Emperor Dragon because this dinosaur has tiny primitive feathers on its fossil tailbone and jawbone, which is far from the Tyrannosaurus Rex seen in TV pictures.

Tyrannosaurus rex eats meat, which is quite fierce. Generally speaking, they are very huge, most of them are more than 10 meter long, while "Tommy Tam" is relatively small, only 1.5 meter long.

Researchers believe that feathers first appeared in dinosaurs that lived on land. Therefore, the appearance of feathers predates the origin of birds and the origin of bird flight. Therefore, feathers are not unique characteristics of birds.

Feathers first appeared not because of flight needs, but perhaps to regulate body temperature or attract the opposite sex.

Feathers found on Tommy Tam coccyx fossils are about 2cm long and extend at 30-40 degrees, probably to keep warm. When Tyrannosaurus Rex appeared later, its feathers gradually disappeared as it grew bigger and bigger and grew scales.

According to Dr. Xu Xing, Dilong No.1 * * has four specimens, and the longest one is only about 1.6 meters.

From the relatively complete skull fossils and reduction renderings, it can be seen that its physical characteristics are similar to those of the feathered Chinese dragon bird. Dr. Xu Xing told the reporter: "This dinosaur may be the earliest member of the dinosaur family. The discovery of dinosaur feathers proves that the view that birds and dinosaurs are ancestors is not far away. "

In the interview, Dr. Xu Xing emphasized, "This discovery first proved that the early ancestors of Tyrannosaurus Rex were small in size, and then slowly evolved into giant Tyrannosaurus Rex. More importantly, however, the fact that the dragon was covered with feathers once again proved that dinosaurs and birds had the same ancestor. "

For a long time, ornithologists only rely on seven archaeopteryx fossils found in Germany to study Mesozoic birds. Because of the defects of archaeopteryx skull fossils, scientists have been debating whether it has the original structure-retroorbital bone and squama bone inherited from reptile ancestors.

Although dinosaurs evolved from the ancestors of reptiles, they did not have such a skull structure. This is also an important reason why ornithologists, including Hou, have always insisted that dinosaurs were not the direct ancestors of birds.

Hou Lianhai said: "As early as1.400 million years ago in the Late Jurassic, birds had already formed a huge and highly differentiated group, and their ancestors must have searched from earlier strata. In the late Jurassic, dinosaurs thrived on the earth. At that time, there were a large number of reptiles and Mesozoic birds living in western Liaoning, China, due to the suitable climate and environment. Accordingly, Hou Lianhai prefers the relationship between birds and dinosaur sisters to direct kinship.

Hou Lianhai was once famous for studying the world's first Confucius bird fossil. 1996, he published an academic paper on Confucius birds in Nature.

He said: "The mystery of the origin of birds is far from being solved. Our latest research only provides new evidence. But in any case, now the global scientific community is getting closer and closer to the truth. The famous British paleontologist Walker recently wrote a long letter to Hou Lianhai. She listed many characteristics of Confucius birds, which were very close to some early dinosaurs found in South Africa in the late Triassic 200 million years ago.

I am an authoritative witness! Professor Hou Lianhai now works in the Institute of Paleontology, China Academy of Sciences.