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<a href = "https://3c1703fe8d.site.internapcdn.net/newman/gfx/news/hires/2018/chinesecreta.jpg" title = "A fossil bird that's 127 million years old, Jinguofortis perplexus (right reconstruction, illustration of Chung-Tat Cheung), second earliest member of the Pygostylia short-tailed birds. Credit: WANG Min ">
A fossil bird that's 127 million years old Jinguofortis perplexus (right reconstruction, illustration of Chung-Tat Cheung), second earliest member of the Pygostylia short-tailed birds. Credit: WANG Min
A newly identified extinct bird species from a 127 million year old fossil deposit in northeastern China provides new information on bird development during the first evolution of the world. flight.
Drs. Wang Min, Thomas Stidham and Zhou Zhonghe of the Institute of Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of Vertebrates (IVPP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences reported on their study of the skeleton and well-preserved complete feathers of this bird Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
The analysis of this early Cretaceous fossil shows that it is a crucial point in the evolution of the flight – after the birds have lost their long bony tail, but before they developed a flight of flying feathers on their shortened tail.
Scientists have named this extinct species Jinguofortis perplexus. The genus name "Jinguofortis" honors women scientists around the world. It derives from the Chinese word "jinguo", which means warrior, and from the Latin word "fortis" which means "brave".
Jinguofortis perplexus has a unique combination of characters, including a jaw with small teeth like that of theropod dinosaurs; a short bony tail ending in a compound bone called pygostyle; gizzard stones showing that he was eating mainly plants; and a third finger with only two bones, unlike other early birds.
Major changes in the coracoid and scapula (major components of the scapular girdle) in major vertebrate groups; the right is a simplified cladogram showing the phylogeny of Mesozoic birds with highlights of changes in the shoulder and hand. Credit: WANG Min
The fossil's shoulder also gives indications on its flying ability. In flying birds, the shoulder, which undergoes significant stress during the flight, is a tight joint between the unfused bones. In contrast, Jinguofortis perplexus retains a scapular girdle where the major bones of the shoulder, scapula and coracoid are fused together, forming a scapulocoracoid.
The existence of a fused scapular girdle in this short-tailed fossil suggests an evolutionary variety at this stage of evolution, which probably resulted in different flying styles. Based on its skeleton and feathers, Jinguofortis perplexus probably evolved a little differently from birds.
The measurement of the fossil wing size and the estimate of its body mass show that the extinct species was similar in wing shape and wing charge (wing surface divided by body mass) at
Explore more:
The discovery of fossils repels 40 million years ago the date of the first fused bones in birds
More information:
Min. Wang el al., "A new clade of basal pygostylian birds of the lower Cretaceous and developmental plasticity of the avian scapular girdle" PNAS (2018). www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1812176115
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