It is a consensus in the academic community that birds evolved from dinosaurs. The evolution process, especially how the skull and body of early birds evolved independently, has long attracted attention.
The latest research by Chinese scientists in the Jehol Biota (135 million to 120 million years ago) found a new genus and species fossil of a basal bird, the Heroididae, a Cretaceous bird with a dinosaur skull and a weird body, and will It was named "Zhu's craton bird of prey", and through in-depth research on it, it revealed the adaptive evolution process of the skull, scapula and first metatarsal of early birds.
The "prey" of Zhu's craton bird of prey means a ferocious bird, which is taken from Qu Yuan's "Li Sao" "The birds of prey are not flocking, and it is natural from the previous life"; the genus name "craton" is taken from the National Natural Science Foundation of China Science Center project "Craton destruction and terrestrial biological evolution"; the species name is dedicated to Zhu Rixiang, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and geophysicist.
This important research progress on the evolution from dinosaurs to birds was jointly completed by researchers Wang Min and Li Zhiheng from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (Institute of Paleontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences). The professional academic journal "Nature Ecology & Evolution" (Nature Ecology & Evolution) was published online.
A video provided by researcher Wang Min demonstrates the three-dimensional reconstruction of the skull and hind limbs of the Zhushi craton bird of prey.
(Reporter Sun Zifa produced the video of Yue Ziyan from the Institute of Paleospine, Chinese Academy of Sciences)
Editor in charge: [Fang Jialiang]