Eight hairy dinosaur fossils have a story

Fossil and simulation of the Qu-footed River Bird.

French collectors offered to donate fossils

In October 2016, the Liaoning Paleontological Museum held the "Special Exhibition of China's Feathered Dinosaurs" at the Science Center of Rennes, France, which caused a sensation. The opening ceremony of the exhibition invited experts from France, Belgium and other countries to attend. Goethe Floy, a dinosaur scientist at the Royal Institute of Nature in Belgium, was invited to attend. Sun Ge, director of the Liaoning Paleontological Museum, recalled that Godefroy told him the good news that the French fossil collector Esquire offered to give 8 fossil specimens from Liaoning, China, which he had collected in Europe, to the Liaoning Paleontological Museum free of charge.

After preliminary communication, in January 2017, on the commission of collector Esquire, Godefroy wrote a letter to Sun Ge, in which he formally proposed to donate fossil specimens to the Liaoning Paleontological Museum free of charge.

In his letter, Godefroy said: "These fossils were collected by Esquiri from several private collection stores in Europe, and he hopes to return them to China." The fossils are ready to be returned to China from Belgium at our institute. But I need your help now to find a formal way to return the fossils. In particular, it is impossible to know how the fossils came to Europe, and Esquire promised that he had obtained them from the European market, not directly from the Chinese market. The fossils are scientifically important and must also be returned to China, and if possible, to the Liaoning Museum of Paleontology. ”

In October 2017, at the invitation of the Royal Institute of Nature of Belgium, a Chinese delegation composed of Guo Jie, director of the Liaoning Provincial Fossil Resources Conservation Administration, and Sun Ge, director of the Liaoning Paleontological Museum, arrived in Brussels, Belgium. With the assistance of the Chinese Embassy in Belgium, the Liaoning receiving delegation and the European donor officially held a fossil handover ceremony at the Royal Institute of Nature in Belgium. In December last year, with the support of Shenyang Customs and the Office of the National Paleontological Fossil Expert Committee, all the fossils were safely transported back to Shenyang and delivered to the Liaoning Paleontological Museum.

Four of the fossils are internationally prized model specimens

The 8 precious fossils donated by the French collector this time, including 7 feathered dinosaurs and 1 fossil of the original bird (i.e. the Quzu Rehe Bird), have now been exhibited in the Treasures Museum of the Liaoning Paleontological Museum. The reporter saw that these 8 fossils are all about 50 centimeters, and only one Chinese bird dragon fossil has a long tail and a specimen length of 73 centimeters. These small dinosaurs and birds in the fossil freeze frame have different postures, lifelike, and carefully examined, the traces of bones, wings and even feathers are very clear and complete.

"The 8 fossils donated by Europe are of great significance for studying the origin of birds and the evolutionary relationship between dinosaurs and birds." Sun Ge pointed out the fossils to explain to reporters, of which 4 fossils are also the model specimens that have been published in important international academic journals in recent years, that is, the typical and representative specimens designated when the paleontological naming of new genera species, which have important research and display value, these 4 model specimens are about 160 million years old "Xu's Dawn bird", "Short-feathered Chinese feather dragon", "Sun's silk bird dragon", and about 125 million years ago "Quzu Re river bird".

According to the excavated fossil stratigraphic isotope dating evidence, these fossils were produced from the Jurassic Yanliao biota in western Liaoning (about 160 million years ago) and the early Cretaceous Rehe biota (about 125 million years ago), the most representative of which is the "Xu's Dawn bird", which belongs to the small feathered theropod dinosaurs, the fossils were found in the Middle and Late Jurassic ManeJishan Formation in Jianchang, Liaoning Province, which is a model specimen published in the international authoritative journal and the British journal Nature in 2013, with high academic value. At that time, it caused a "dragon bird war" in the world, and the author believes that this feathered dinosaur is "the world's earliest bird so far", which can replace the status of the German Archaeopteryx as the "world's earliest and most primitive bird", and its age is more than 10 million years earlier than the German Archaeopteryx 150 million years ago. The advent of this specimen has led to worldwide research into the origins of birds.

Another fossil, "Short-feathered Chinese Feather Dragon", is one of the smallest feathered dinosaurs to date, belonging to a small feathered theropod dinosaur, with a body length of only 30 cm and a relatively short tail, which not only preserves a complete skeleton fossil, but also preserves feather marks, which are also found in Jianchang. Experts believe that the dinosaur's hind limbs did not have long flying feathers, and may be better at running than its kind.

The fossil of the "Quzu Re River Bird" was found in the Early Cretaceous Shiyi County Formation in western Liaoning, about 125 million years ago. This is a new basal bird with characteristics such as ground habitat and eating plant seeds.

The Fossil of "Hercules" is the world's earliest feathered dinosaur to date, representing the world's earliest feathered species.

There is also "Sun's Silk Bird Dragon", which is a model specimen of a filamentous feathered dinosaur just published in the German journal "Natural Science" in 2017, and its species name is named after The name of China's paleontologist Sun Ge. This is a new genus of small feathered theropod dinosaurs, which has a very similar skeletal form to the ornithopod and the dawning bird, the body is covered with soft and slender feathers, and the limbs have long positive feathers, but it cannot flap its wings to fly, or even glide among the trees, and it is likely to live on the ground in the forest.

Western Liaoning may be the center of bird origin and evolution

"Fossils are important materials for studying the origin and evolution of life, stratigraphic division and comparison, and finding sedimentary mineral resources, and are also valuable resources for promoting popular science education." Sun Ge introduced that so far in Liaoning found nearly 30 phyla, more than 10,000 species of fossils, mainly including jellyfish, trilobites, corals, brachiopods, cephalopods and other marine invertebrates, amphibians, reptiles (including dinosaurs), birds, mammals and other terrestrial vertebrates, spiders, insects and other terrestrial invertebrates and plants, etc., the number of fossils found in Liaoning is currently at the forefront of the country. In recent years, among the 53 national key protected paleontological fossil concentrations selected by the Ministry of Land and Resources, 5 places in our province, including Chaoyang, Yixian, Jianchang, Benxi and Beipiao, have been selected into the national fossil production list.

According to preliminary statistics, there are more than 40 kinds of dinosaur fossils found in Liaoning, such as sauropods and theropods. "Of the 8 fossil specimens returned this time, 6 belong to the dinosaurs of the family " Ornitosaurus " , theropods , and some believe to belong to birds ." Xu Xing, a well-known dinosaur research expert and researcher at the Institute of Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, told reporters that the common features of dinosaurs in the family Osanitosaurus are that they are small in size, long in the hind legs, developed in the skull, relatively intelligent, generally considered to be carnivores, and some people think that they are omnivores, and their forelimbs are very short, and most of them have no ability to fly. There are erect hook claws on the hind limb claws, which are used to tear through the skin and blood vessels of prey when catching prey, which is equivalent to bringing its own "sickle", and usually the hook claws stand up without touching the ground.

The feathered dinosaurs found in Liaoning have many similarities with birds, such as hollowing out bones, light bodies, and feathers, which are of great significance for the study of the origin of birds and the origin of feathers. International academic debates have been debated for more than 100 years about the origin of birds, but previous debates have lacked fossil evidence. In recent years, the discovery of fossils such as "Chinese Dragon Bird" and "Hesper's Near Bird" and the 8 fossils returned this time provide new and important evidence for the hypothesis that birds originated from theropod dinosaurs.

Xu Xing believes that dinosaurs may have grown feathers early in their evolution, and one of them became smaller and smaller, looking more and more like birds, and eventually evolved birds. Experts in China's paleontology community generally believe that the western Liaoning region may be the central area of the origin and evolution of birds.

Countries that illegally export fossils have the right to recourse

What motivated French collectors to donate fossils that have been treasured for many years? Industry experts believe that since the implementation of the "Paleontological Fossil Protection Regulations" in China in January 2011 and the implementation of the "Paleontological Fossil Protection Regulations" in 2013, the public's awareness and awareness of fossil protection have been greatly improved, and positive repercussions have also been generated abroad. This fossil donation action is also a concrete embodiment of the support of foreign collectors and research experts for the protection of fossils in China, after all, in accordance with Chinese laws and regulations, these fossils come from China and must be returned to China after all, which is also the consensus of overseas friendly people.

How did the 8 fossil specimens returned this time lose overseas? His bumpy life is still unsolved. According to the analysis of industry insiders, it should be that in the past 20 years, some local people have been driven by economic interests to lose fossils to the overseas fossil market through illegal digging, scalping, smuggling and other means. The return of these fossil specimens will effectively promote the popularization of paleontological fossil research and science in Liaoning, and better serve the scientific and cultural construction of Liaoning. (Courtesy of Liaoning Paleontological Museum)