China's top ten dinosaurs in a hundred years - small robbers
Caption: Flying little thief dragon, author: Zhang Zongda
The last issue introduced the earth sloth, and it can be seen that everyone is still very interested in this monster. This issue continues to feature: China's top ten dinosaurs in a hundred years, to introduce a long feathered strange dinosaur, which has two pairs of wings before and after, is a strange dinosaur from the Rehe biota, it is a small robber.
Ancient Bird Robbery Incident
Image note: Stephen Sykes, picture from the internet
In February 1999, Stephen A. Czerkas of the Branding Dinosaur Museum in Utah bought a special fossil at the Tucson Fossil Exhibition that preserved an animal that resembled both a dinosaur and a bird. Sykes, who had obtained the fossils, invited the famous paleontologist Philip Curry to study it. As a consulting expert for National Geographic magazine, Korel told the magazine's editor about the discovery.
Although the fossil was smuggled in by China and tests showed that it may have been spliced together from different animals, a research paper on the fossil was published in National Geographic in November under the title "Did Tyrannosaurus Rex Have Feathers?" FEATHERS FOR T-REX?, the new animal named Archaeoraptor, may be a key to unlocking the origins of birds.
Illustration: Sykes gave the fossil of the ancient bird to Xu Xing, the picture is from the Internet
Image note: Through CT, you can see that the fossils of ancient birds are spliced together by multiple fossils, and the pictures come from the Network
As recently as October, Xu Xing, a Chinese paleontologist who had seen the fossils, discovered that its tail happened to resemble the tail of a chilong fossil he was studying, and he immediately informed National Geographic of the discovery. Finding that he had made a big mistake, National Geographic immediately held a press conference to admit his mistake, which immediately caused a sensation in the academic community, and this was the sensational "ancient bird robber incident".
Little thief
Photo note: Fossil of Gu's little Thief, picture from the Internet
In the aftermath of the "Ancient Bird Robber Incident," paleontologists at the Institute of Paleovertebrates and Paleoanthropology studied the fossil to which the tail belonged, and they published a paper in the journal Nature in 2000 titled "The Smallest Known Non-avian theropod dinosaur," in which the genus Microraptor was established.
The genus name " Thief " comes from the Latin " Mmicro " ( meaning " small " ) and " Raptor " ( meaning " thief " ) , meaning " small thief " , because the minor thief was very small. The model species of Little Raptor is named Microraptor Zhaoianus, and the species name "Zhaoianus" is dedicated to the famous Chinese paleontologist Mr. Zhao Xijin. In addition to the model species, there are two species in the genus Microraptor gui, which is named "Gui" dedicated to the paleontologist Mr. Gu Zhiwei; and The species name "Hanqingi" is dedicated to Mr. Zhang Xueliang, whose name is "Hanqing", which commemorates the founding of Northeastern University.
Four-winged elves
Illustration: Comparison of the size of the little raptor and the human, the picture comes from the network
Illustration: Skeletal line diagram of the little raptor, picture from the network
The small size of the little raptor is one of the smallest known dinosaurs, and the Zhao and Gu little raptors are only 0.45-0.55 meters long and weigh about 1 kg. The larger Hanqing Little Thief is more than 1 meter long and weighs about 3 kg. With feathers all over its body, the baby robber looked like a magpie with a long tail.
Caption: The skull of a baby robber dragon, you can see the small fangs in the mouth, the picture comes from the network
The head of the little thief was large and long, triangular from the side, and had a pair of large eyes on either side of its head. The small raptors had a nose above the pointed mouth, and two rows of curved and sharp teeth in the mouth, indicating that they were typical predators.
The baby thief had a slender neck and a thin body at the back, followed by a long tail. In contrast to its body , the limbs of the lesser thiefosaur were long and flexible , with long claws on its forelimbs and a high toe of its hind limbs , a typical feature of the chicosaurs.
The body of the little thornosaur was covered with a layer of feathers, and on its head grew a feather crown, which resembled the North American black woodpecker today. At the end of the long tail of the little thief there are fan-shaped tail feathers radiating outwards, two of which are obviously longer than the surrounding feathers. In addition to the special feathers at the end of the head and tail, the small thorns have long flight feathers on their forelimbs and hind limbs, which form two pairs of wings at the front and back. Today's birds only have one pair of wings on their forelimbs, and the little robbers have grown two pairs of wings, which is very amazing.
Cretaceous biplanes
Illustration: A small raptor who glides with wings outstretched, the picture comes from the network
The two-winged Little Raptor was an absolute outlier in the dinosaur family, and although today we have determined that many dinosaurs had feathers, only the little Raptor grew four wings. Wings mean flying, are little raptors really flying dinosaurs? After years of research by paleontologists, it was confirmed that the little raptor was able to glide. The baby robber usually lives in a tree, and its hooked claws on its limbs can easily grasp the trunk and climb up.
Illustration: In order to study the flight ability of the little raptor, the researchers made a model of the little raptor, the picture is from the network
When the baby thief is at a high place, it will leap forward and then spread its limbs. The forelimbs of the little thief are its main wings, which can provide lift, and the feathers on its hind limbs form a biplane structure with the forelimbs, which can maintain stability in flight. On the back of the baby thief, the long tail is used to control the direction. The Little Raptor will glide silently through the forest like a biplane, and the sky is its stage.
Black is more understated
Illustration: The color of the little raptor is studied through feather fossils, and the picture comes from the internet
In 2012, paleontologists at the Beijing Museum of Natural History and the American Museum of Natural History studied a well-preserved fossil of Apatosaurus by studying the melanoid body remaining in the feather fossil. Paleontologists have determined that the feathers on its body are predominantly black, and the surface of the feathers has a metallic luster, like a magpie.
Image note: The color of the little raptor, the picture comes from the network
The small black raptor surprised many people, and in the previous speculation, everyone thought that the body color of the little raptor must be bright and beautiful. However, considering the environment in which they lived, the baby robbers lived in dense forests, and they stayed on the canopy of high dark colors, and the black color was just enough to help it hide, not easy to be found by other animals.
Aerial killer of the River of Heat
Photo note: A small raptor living in a tree, picture from the internet
The little raptor lived in the Early Cretaceous 125 million years ago, and the fossils were found in the Jiufotang Formation formation of the Rehe biota. The world in which the little robbers lived was warm, moist, vibrant, and birdsy, and the ground was occupied by vast forests and meandering rivers and lakes. Through fossil material, we know that a large number of animals and plants lived with small raptors, including carnivorous Chinese tyrannosaurs, omnivorous tail-like feathers, plant-eating parrot-billed dragons and legendary dragons.
Note: Fossils of little raptors with bird skeletons in their stomachs, images from the Internet
Photo note: Birds of prey, by Zhang Zongda
Caption: Catch a small raptor dragon of a lizard, picture from the network
Hundreds of millions of years ago, the River of Heat was in danger, and the little robbers had to beware not only of carnivorous dinosaurs on the ground, but also of pterosaurs in the sky. In order to avoid danger, the little robber chose to live in the tree, and its limbs were born to climb the tree. In the stomach of its fossils, paleontologists have found the bones of small fish, lizards and even birds, which shows that the small raptors have a very wide range of food, whether it is flying in the sky, running on the ground, swimming in the water is its prey. The baby robber will hide in the high canopy, find the prey, spread its wings and swoop down from a high place, and then quietly catch the prey. In this way, the little robber dragon is a small demon with agile hands and mysterious powers.
The story about the little raptor is not over, the picture comes from the network
The discovery of The Little Raptor is significant, not only proving that dinosaurs could live in trees and glide, but also providing strong evidence for the "arboreal origin theory" of birds. Research on the little raptor is continuing, and in the future we will learn more about the four-winged elves in this family of dinosaurs.
Resources:
1.Senter, P., Barsold, R., Britt, B.B., and Burnham, D.A. (2004). "Systematics and evolution of Dromaeosauridae (Dinosauria, Theropoda)." Bulletin of the Gunma Museum of Natural History, 8: 1-20.
2. Alexander, D.E., Gong, E., Martin, L.D., Burnham, D.A. and Falk, A.R. (2010). "Model tests of gliding with different hindwing configurations in the four-winged dromaeosaurid Microraptor gui." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, 107: 2972–2976. doi:10.1073/pnas.0911852107
3.Chatterjee, S., and Templin, R.J. (2007). "Biplane wing planform and flight performance of the feathered dinosaur Microraptor gui." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 104(5): 1576-1580. [1]
4.Holtz, Thomas R. Jr. (2011) Dinosaurs: The Most Complete, Up-to-Date Encyclopedia for Dinosaur Lovers of All Ages, Winter 2010 Appendix.
5.Benson, R.B.J. & Brussatte, S. (2012). Prehistoric Life. London: Dorling Kindersley. p. 332. ISBN 978-0-7566-9910-9.
Next issue is coming soon
The next issue will continue with China's top ten dinosaurs in the past century, and will introduce another long-necked sauropod dinosaur, pan-footed dinosaur.