"The highest generation" ancient bird -Yumen Gansu Bird

The birds with a variety of attitudes make nature full of life. Today I will introduce to you three specialty birds: the first, living in hundreds of millions of years ago, is no longer existing, but can speculate from the fossils unearthed from our province; However, it is often unknown; the third type is distributed in our province and is included in the national first -level protection, but it is not very common.

Yumen Gansu bird, living in the era of the Baiji Period dinosaur, who lived about 110 million years ago, is an extinct fossil bird. It was first discovered in Shenjiawan Village, Changma Township, Yumen City. It was studied and named by the famous ancient birdist, the ancient vertebrate and ancient human research institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the ancient human research institute Hou Lianhai. In the first batch of "National Key Protective Protection of Poor Bio Fossils", it was listed as a first -level key protection.

Yumen Gansu Bird is the first Mesozoic Bird in my country (starting in the Triple Period and End in the White Clear Period). compared to). When it was discovered, the second old bird known to the world was second only to the well -known Ariter birds found in Bavaria, Germany (according to new research, the athletic bird was considered no longer a bird, but a relationship with the birds. Very close to the dinosaur of the Dragons). In Gansu's "bird scores", Yumen Gansu birds have the highest generations and the oldest qualifications.

Unfortunately, although there have been dozens of pieces of Yumen Gansu birds that have been unearthed so far, the preservation is incomplete, and there are no individuals with bones, so the information obtained from fossils is limited. But scientists still tried to restore the appearance and habits of Yumen Gansu birds during their lifetime. Birds do not have teeth. They need to use hard objects such as small stones to grind food. Stomach stones are found in the fossils of birds in Gansu, Yumen, which shows that it already has this habit. In addition, it has a trace of toe tip, which may be aquatic. Its bones are not as hollow like modern birds, but they are relatively heavy, indicating that it has limited flight capabilities. Based on these bites of evidence and analysis, scientists have gradually determined that Yumen Gansu bird is a kind of water and land "amphibious" birds living on the shore. It can fly but not good. Essence It is speculated that it may eat fish and aquatic insects. Is the straight descendants evolved in the Gansu bird of Yumen is not very certain, but it is suitable for the diving body shape but there are no shortage of modern "heirs", such as 鸬鹚 and Qianbird. It can be said that the latter two played the role of Gansu bird more than 100 million years ago in modern nature.

Interestingly, the "Gansu Bird" is named (the classification of classification higher than the species, and the relationship between the same species is very close). Gansu bird discovered. In 2014, Chinese scientists discovered two unique bird fossils in the Rehe biological group in Lingyuan City, Liaoning Province. It has been found that among the known birds, the characteristics of Yumen Gansu birds are the most similar to these two fossils. The researchers named a new species: Zhen's Gansu Bird (to commemorate the paleontologist Mr. Zhen Shuo Nan To. At this point, there are two kinds of ancient birds in the genus of Yumen Gansu. The two types of Gansu birds have the same habits and the same age of survival, but the place of life has span more than 2,000 kilometers. More importantly, although the number of Zhen's Gansu bird fossils has been small, it is more intact, and more information has been obtained from it to further verify the various inferences of the former Yumen Gansu bird.

The scientific research value of Yumen Gansu Bird is huge. Its discovery not only attracted widespread attention from the world's academic circles, but also aroused great interest in research personnel to study, thereby unveiling the prelude to the study of birds in the middle generation of our country. At present, the scientific research level of ancient birds in my country is at the forefront of the world. It can be said that the discovery and research of Yumen Gansu bird played an important role in promoting.

Nowadays, the fossils of the Yumen Gansu bird are lying quietly in the research institute and museum, waiting for more information to be interpreted.

□ Cong Peihao (Source: Daily Gansu.com)

Editor in charge: Zhao Haiyan

- END -