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A Chinese researcher said his team has discovered the fossil of
the world's earliest bird from the late Mesozoic stratum in
Fengning Man Autonomous County of north China's Hebei
Province.
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Ji Qiang, a research fellow with the Geology Institute under the
Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, said that the fossilized
Jinfengopteryx elegans is more primitive than the archaeopteryx,
previously considered the world's earliest bird, which was
discovered in southern Germany in 1861.
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Ji and his colleagues have been studying the 54.8-centimeter-long
fossil of Jinfengopteryx elegans since it was discovered in
Fengning county, about 120 kilometers north of Beijing, in July
last year.
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Ji said, they found feathers attached to the whole body of the
bird, which has a triangular-shaped head and 36 smooth teeth inside
the short beak. The fossil consists of 12 sections of cervical
vertebrae, 11 sections of spine vertebrae and 23 sections of caudal
vertebrae. The bird's tail is 27.3 centimeters long, or about 50
percent of its total length.
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Ji said Wednesday that several factors have lead to their
conclusion. The Jinfengopteryx elegans' hind legs are longer than
its forelimbs while the German bird has hind legs and forelimbs of
almost the same length. Also their bid has more and taller teeth
than the one discovered in Germany.
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Based on their research on 205 characteristics of Jinfengopteryx
elegans, Ji and his colleagues concluded that the Chinese bird and
the German bird belong to species of sisterly relations.
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Ji said, the fossil of Jinfengopteryx elegans also provide evidence
for the cursorial hypothesis about the origin of avian
flight.
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There are now two theories about the origin of bird flight, a hot
topic for paleontologists around the globe. One is the cursorial
hypothesis, which says that birds obtained flying ability in the
process of running and leaping. The arboreal hypothesis says that
birds acquired the unique skill of fluttering and soaring first
through gliding down from tall trees.
(Xinhua News Agency March 24, 2005)
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