New discovery! Strange Fujian Dragon
Ancient Discoveries | First Discovery of Dinosaur Fossils in Fujian, Strange Fujian Dragon Fills Part of the Blank Space in the Origin of Birds
The reporter learned from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences that Wang Min's team and Xu Liming's team of Fujian Provincial Geological Survey and Research Institute cooperated to find dinosaur fossils in Fujian for the first time and named them "Strange Fujian Dragon", which is the ornithoptera dinosaur with the latest Jurassic period and the southernmost geographical location in the world, filling part of the gap in the origin of birds.
Ecological Restoration Map of Strange Fujian Dragon and Zhenghe Fauna.
Birds differentiated from non avian theropod dinosaurs at least in the Late Jurassic. And bird wings include all modern birds as well as primitive birds from the Mesozoic era, so the Jurassic bird wings are crucial for studying the origin and evolution of birds. The only known Jurassic ornithoptera species are Neornithosaurus and its similar species, mostly found in the Yanliao Biota in Northeast China, which dates back to 166 to 159 million years ago. This is a 30 million year gap compared to the large number of birds that appeared in the early Cretaceous period about 130 million years ago.
Since 2021, the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Fujian Provincial Institute of Geological Survey have carried out a survey of vertebrate paleontology fossils in Fujian, and a nearly complete dinosaur fossil was found in the late Jurassic strata of Zhenghe in October 2022. After nearly a year of restoration and analysis, the research team believes that this new species belongs to the bird wing class and named it "Strange Fujian Dragon", which is also the first discovery of dinosaur fossils in Fujian Province.
Strange Fujian dragon holotype specimen, branching system tree, and paleogeographic map.
Xu Liming, a senior engineer at the Fujian Geological Survey and Research Institute, led a team to conduct comprehensive geological surveys and isotopic dating work, limiting the time of the life of the strange Fujian dragon to the Late Jurassic Datong period; Wang Min, a researcher of the Institute of Paleovertebrae of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and other researchers determined that it is the southernmost Jurassic ornithoptera in the known global geographical position through the restoration of its paleogeographic position. The discovery of the strange Fujian dragon fills a partial gap in the temporal and spatial origins of birds.
Phylogenetic analysis shows that there is a close genetic relationship between the strange Fujian dragon and the near bird dragon, forming the near bird dragon family and being the earliest differentiated branch of ornithoptera. The most unique feature of the strange Fujian dragon is its hind limb structure: short femur, slender tibia and metatarsals. Based on the analysis of comparative cladistics, Wang Min et al. found that the body structure of the strange Fujian dragon is similar to that of other bird winged species, and is situated between dinosaurs and birds in terms of body size space.
"We believe that the strange Fujian dragon is a type of small theropod dinosaur that is good at running or living by the water's edge. This lifestyle is completely different from the academic understanding of the ecological evolution of 'arboreal' birds at the beginning of their origin. The discovery of the strange Fujian dragon has increased the ecological diversity of primitive bird wings," said Wang Min.
In addition, the investigation team composed of Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Fujian Provincial Institute of Geological Survey also found a large number of well preserved reptiles in Zhenghe, Fujian, including aquatic/semi aquatic turtles and dragons. Based on such high fossil abundance and diversity, as well as a precise chronological framework, researchers named it the "Zhenghe Fauna". This is also the latest known and southernmost preserved bird winged animal group in the Jurassic period globally.
The related research results were published in the international academic journal Nature on September 6th.