中国科学家《Nature》改写进化史

　　

        

  这里是从非鸟类四足动物向鸟类过渡中的另一个篇章——一种奇特的、鸽子大小的长羽毛的恐龙从中国的中-晚侏罗纪地层中被发现。这种生物生活的年代比始祖鸟稍早一些，它在很多方面都像鸟，包括长有四个非常长的、丝带一样的尾羽和一个短尾。

      但没有在像小盗龙那样的鸟样恐龙四肢上所看到的那种飞行羽毛的痕迹。在今天的鸟类中，加长的尾羽通常都是起装饰作用的，这种古生物的尾羽也可能是起这种作用。

      这一新发现的化石，使得从恐龙向鸟类演化的早期历史变得更复杂了。

Nature 455 , 1105-1108 (23 October 2008) | doi :10.1038/nature07447 ; Received 14 June 2008; Accepted 19 September 2008

A bizarre Jurassic maniraptoran from China with elongate ribbon-like feathers
Fucheng Zhang 1 , Zhonghe Zhou 1 , Xing Xu 1 , Xiaolin Wang 1 & Corwin Sullivan 1

Laboratory of Evolutionary Systematics of Vertebrates, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, PO Box 643, Beijing 100044, China
Recent coelurosaurian discoveries have greatly enriched our knowledge of the transition from dinosaurs to birds, but all reported taxa close to this transition are from relatively well known coelurosaurian groups . Here we report a new basal avialan, Epidexipteryx hui gen. et sp. nov., from the Middle to Late Jurassic of Inner Mongolia, China. This new species is characterized by an unexpected combination of characters seen in several different theropod groups, particularly the Oviraptorosauria. Phylogenetic analysis shows it to be the sister taxon to Epidendrosaurus , forming a new clade at the base of Avialae . Epidexipteryx also possesses two pairs of elongate ribbon-like tail feathers, and its limbs lack contour feathers for flight. This finding shows that a member of the avialan lineage experimented with integumentary ornamentation as early as the Middle to Late Jurassic, and provides further evidence relating to this aspect of the transition from non-avian theropods to birds.