Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

Thanks to CTOnews.com netizen Alejandro86 for the clue delivery! CTOnews.com Sept. 11, according to the China Science News, the ancient vertebrates of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in cooperation with the Institute of Palaeoanthropology and the Fujian Geological Survey Institute, discovered dinosaur fossils for the first time in Fujian. Through the study, it was confirmed that the fossil species was the most late Jurassic and southernmost ornithopterous dinosaur in the world, between 148 million and 150 million years ago, and named it "Strange Fujian Dragon". This result was published on the 6th in the international academic journal Nature.

▲ Nature published a paper entitled "New Jurassic ornithopterous dinosaurs and a new terrestrial fauna". Birds are descended from late Jurassic non-avian theropod dinosaurs, but the earliest stage of this evolution is still unclear due to extremely rare fossil records and time and space constraints. This paper describes a Jurassic ornithopterous dinosaur with a history of 148 to 150 million years ago, which is the youngest in strata and the southernmost in geography.

CTOnews.com learned from the paper that the fossil was discovered in the Zhenghe Daxi Basin in northern Fujian in October 2022. After nearly a year of restoration and analysis, the research team believes that the new species has similar forelimbs to Archaeopteryx and relatively slender hind legs, but is intermediate in size between dinosaurs and birds. It is a kind of small theropod dinosaur that is good at running or lives by the water, and named it "Strange Fujian Dragon".

In addition to exotic Fujian dragons, the team also found a large number of well-preserved reptile fossils from the same period as exotic Fujian dragons, including aquatic / semi-aquatic turtles and detached dragons, which the researchers named "Zhenghe fauna".

The paper says that the discovery of "Strange Fujian Dragon" makes up for some gaps in the origin of birds in time and space, and provides important information for the study of the origin and evolution of birds.

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