辽西中生代鸟类和鸟类早期演化

Mesozoic Birds from Western Liaoning China and the Early Evolution of Birds

本文介绍了在国家自然科学基金委和中国科学院的支持下,近10年来对辽西中生代鸟类化石研究的基本情况,并对该项课题的主要研究成果及对鸟类起源和早期演化的意义作了综述。

The first Mesozoic bird discovered in China was an ornithurine Gansus yumenensis , described by Hou and Liu in 1984, the age of Early Cretaceous, from Gansu Province. It was then one of the most complete Early Cretaceous fossil birds in the world. Since early 1990s, the findings and studies on Chinese Mesozoic birds have resulted in a great deal information on the early evolution of birds. The documents of the Confuciusornis fauna indicate that the ancestor of birds had probably appeared much earlier than previously thought. The Confuciusornis - bearing formation may represent the late stage of the Jurassic because among known birds Confuciusornis is second only to Archaeopteryx in primitiveness. Liaoningornis represents the oldest known member of the branch Ornithural that gone rise to modernbirds. Study of Cathayornis fauna indicates that the morphologically unique bird enantiomithes played an important role in early evolution of birds and the originated in eastern Asia. The origin and early evolution of birds is a complicated biological evolution process and during this process gradual evolution and accidental evolution both works.