中国古新世鸟化石的新发现

The Discovery of the Paleocene Bird from China

为搞清秦岭在印支运动以来的地质发育历史和特征,作者首先在秦岭东段的一些红色盆地中进行地质考察。在陕西洛南石门盆地工作时(参加野外工作的还有赵聚发同志),在该地区樊沟村的棕红色砂质泥岩中找了许多包括鸟类、哺乳类等的脊椎动物化石。根据其中的古哺乳动物及地层特征和区域对比,将该盆地包括化石层在内的一套棕红色泥岩、砂质泥岩地层命名为樊沟组、时代为新生代早第三纪古新世早期(或早-中期)(薛祥煦,1978,1982)。

Several bones of fossil bird were discovered from Fan-Gou Formation at Shimen Basin, Luonan County, Shaanxi Province. It is a kind of smaller-sized bird with many primitive characteris-tics and represents a new genus and species in the order of Charadriiformes. In association with the fossil bird, there is the Bemalambda-Hukoutherium mammalian assemblage, which can be compared very well with those from Sang-Hu Formation, Shi-Zi-Kou Formation etc. in the southeast of China. So, the geological age of the fossil bird from Shimen is Early-Middle Paleocene as same as that of those mammals. It is the first time of discovery of Early-Middle Paleocene bird in China and also in Asia.