The vast majority of modern-day owls (collectively known as owls) are silent-flying nocturnal birds of prey.
However, there are exceptions, that is, a few species of owls are more adapted to day hunting and are more active during the day.
The research team of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Institute of Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences) recently discovered such an ancient owl that is "deviant" and not a "night owl"-they collected an extinct owl on the edge of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. , 6 million years ago, the fossil of a diurnal owl, and the earliest fossil of an owl-shaped bird discovered in China for the first time.
This owl fossil lived at the end of the Miocene about 6 million to 9.5 million years ago. The scientific research team named it "Zhongxin Mammoth Owl" after taking into account its age of existence, living habits, and skeletal characteristics. ”, which means the diurnal owl-shaped raptor from the Miocene, and the related research results were published in the latest issue of the international academic journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
On March 29, Li Zhiheng, the first author of the paper and an associate researcher of the Institute of Paleo-Spine of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, accepted an exclusive interview with a reporter from China News Agency in Beijing, and made a popular science interpretation of the newly discovered research results of the earliest owl fossils in China.
(Reporter Sun Zifa produced Lv Huiqian)
Responsible editor: [Ye Pan]