鸟类起源研究的最新进展

The Recent Progresses on Researching into the Origin of Bird

鸟类起源的研究是进化生物学研究中的一个热点问题.在过去的几十年内,由于鸟类恐龙起源说的复活和兴起,这一方向的研究取得了巨大进展.尤其是上个世纪末期以来,我国辽西地区带羽毛恐龙化石的发现一次又一次震惊了世界,为我们了解恐龙向鸟类的演化过程提供了有史以来最重要的信息,使得鸟类恐龙起源说建立在了更加坚实的化石证据的基础上.最近,辽西的恐龙新发现再次引起了各国古生物学家的关注.

Sinovenator changii,one of the earliest troodontid dinosaurs,was recently reported from the now-famous Yixian Formation in China.The discovery of Sinovenator and the examination of character distributions along the maniraptorian dinosaur lineage reveal that the principle structural modifications toward avian were ac- quired during the early stage of maniraptorian evolution.