Eight precious fossils of Liaoning paleontology returned home from Europe

"Xu's Dawn bird" is the earliest bird in the world "Hercules" is the earliest feathered dinosaur

Eight extremely precious dinosaur and bird fossils dating from 125 million to 160 million years old have returned to their hometown of Liaoning from Europe and officially settled in the Liaoning Paleontological Museum. On January 13, at the Liaoning Paleontological Museum, a number of academicians, experts and guests from relevant departments in the field of geology and paleontology jointly unveiled the return fossils.

European collectors are willing to donate precious fossils back to Liao

The size of these 8 fossils is mostly about 50 centimeters, and only one specimen of the small robberosaur plus the length of the tail reaches 73 centimeters. They have different postures, and traces of bones, wings and even feathers are clearly visible and well preserved. The 8 fossils include 7 feathered dinosaur fossils and a primitive bird fossil, including the 160 million-year-old "Hexhex", "Short-feathered Chinese Feather dragon", "Xu's Dawn bird"; The "Curved-Footed River Bird" 125 million years ago; A new genus of "Sun's Silk Bird Dragon" was announced in 2017.

These fossils were all produced from the Yanliao biota and the Rehe biota in western Liaoning, which were later lost overseas for various reasons. Liaoning has two world-class paleontological fossil treasures, the Yanliao biota and the Rehe biota, and has made significant contributions to the study of the origin of birds and angiosperms and the evolution of dinosaurs and early mammals, and fossils such as the world-famous "Chinese Dragon Bird", "Confucius Bird" and "Liaoning Ancient Fruit" are produced here.

In January 2017, Mr. Esquire, a French fossil collector, commissioned the Belgian dinosaur scientist Professor Goethe Floy to contact Professor Sun Ge, director of the Liaoning Paleontological Museum, and expressed his willingness to donate the 8 fossil specimens they collected and studied in Europe to the Liaoning Paleontological Museum free of charge.

Eight precious fossils were shipped to Shenyang at the end of last year

After the Liaoning Provincial Land and Resources Department studied and submitted to the Ministry of Land and Resources for approval, it was agreed to receive this batch of precious fossil specimens and collect them as the collection of the Liaoning Paleontological Museum. The Liaoning Paleontological Museum is the largest paleontological museum in China, jointly built by the Land and Resources Department of Liaoning Province and Shenyang Normal University, and the exhibits include the world's earliest flower "Chinese Ancient Fruit", the most primitive hairy mammal-like mammal "Megalodon" so far, and the world's only lizard found in the Mesozoic Era that will glide "Zhao's Xianglong" and other treasures.

On October 30, 2017, a Chinese delegation composed of Guo Jie, director of the Liaoning Provincial Fossil Administration, and Sun Ge, director of the Liaoning Paleontological Museum, with the assistance of the Chinese Embassy in Belgium, officially held a "Gift Chinese Fossils back to China - Fossil Handover Ceremony" with European donors at the Royal Institute of Natural History of Belgium (Brussels).

In mid-November 2017, the eight fossils were safely transported back to Shenyang from Belgium. With the strong assistance of Shenyang Customs and the Office of the National Paleontological Fossil Expert Committee, in late December, all the fossils arrived safely at the Liaoning Paleontological Museum.

Equal emphasis is placed on the study and ornamental value of return fossils

According to reports, the international academic community has been arguing about the origin of birds for more than 100 years, but in the past these debates have lacked fossil evidence. Since 1996, due to the discovery of fossils such as the Chinese feathered dinosaurs "Chinese Dragon Bird", "Tail Feather Dragon", "Little Thief", especially "Hesper's Near Bird", it has finally provided new important evidence for the hypothesis that birds originated from theropod dinosaurs, and made a worldwide contribution to solving the problem of bird origin.

Sun Ge said: "The 8 fossils of this 'return home' are of great significance to the study of the origin of birds and the evolutionary relationship between dinosaurs and birds. Among these 8 fossils, "Xu's Dawn bird", "Short-feathered Chinese feather dragon", "Sun's silk bird dragon" or the primitive bird "Quzu Re river bird" lost overseas and became a model specimen, that is, a typical and representative specimen designated when the paleontology named the new genus species, which has important research value and ornamental value.

"Xu's Dawn bird" is the world's earliest bird discovered so far, and its age is more than 10 million years earlier than the "Archaeopteryx". Its model specimens have been published in international authoritative academic journals and British Nature, and their academic value is extremely high. "Hearsaurus" is the world's earliest feathered dinosaur, and its importance is self-evident. Its fossils are an important supplement to the world's earliest feathered dinosaur published in Nature, England, in 2009. The remaining three specimens to be studied (Chinese avianosaurus undetermined species, etc.) also have important research value.

Since the promulgation of the Regulations on the Protection of Paleontological Fossils and other laws and regulations in 2010, the legalization of Fossil Protection in China has become increasingly popular and has produced positive repercussions overseas, and this gift is a concrete embodiment of the support of overseas collectors and research experts for China's fossil conservation work. According to Wang Lixia, full-time deputy director of the National Paleontological Fossil Expert Committee, in recent years, especially since the implementation of the Regulations on the Protection of Paleontological Fossils, more than 5,000 important paleontological fossils that have been lost overseas have returned to China.

Reporter Wang Lijun according to Xinhua News Agency