According to 205 features, Ji Qiang and others made a branching analysis of golden phoenix. The results show that golden phoenix is at the base of the early bird pedigree tree, slightly more primitive than Archaeopteryx, and has a sister group relationship with the latter. Long Ben, Egg Stealing Dragon and other theropod dinosaurs are the outer groups of golden phoenix and Archaeopteryx, and also the outer groups of primitive birds such as China Shenzhou Bird, indicating that golden phoenix is in a very key position in the evolution from dinosaurs to birds, and is the most primitive early bird found in the world so far.
1996 is an extraordinary year for Ji Qiang. This year, he returned from studying in Germany, gained organizational reuse, and came to geological museum, China as a curator. At the same time, he began to pay attention to western Liaoning, a place favored by the international paleontology community. On August 12 of that year, a fossil specimen from Sihetun in western Liaoning was handed over to Ji Qiang. The animal in this fossil is very small, but it looks like a dinosaur, with thick and sharp teeth on its mouth, a particularly long coccyx with more than 50 coccyx segments, and long and thick hind limbs. The most attractive thing is that it is covered with feathery skin derivatives from beginning to end. This strange feathery substance is about 0.8 cm long.
Ji Qiang carefully observed and studied fossils under the microscope. He found that fibrous skin derivatives are clusters with only one root. He believes that this feature is closely related to feathers. In the same year, Ji Qiang and his colleagues jointly published an article in Geology of China, introducing the research results of this fossil. This article has two main points. First, "in the animal world, only birds have feathers." Seven years later, Ji Qiang said frankly: "This kind of understanding is very limited." Ji Qiang used the concept of "primitive feather" to distinguish "modern feather" in his article. Secondly, they named this animal sauropod, Latin named "China feathered dinosaur", and realized that it was a transitional animal. Therefore, the naming is based on the following considerations. First, it was discovered by China people; The second is transitional; The third is to support the hypothesis that birds evolved from dinosaurs.
The publication of this article was like thunder, which immediately caused a chaos in the field of paleontology at home and abroad. The focus of the debate is: are those skin derivatives hair or feathers? If it is Mao, this discovery has nothing to do with dinosaurs becoming birds.
Shortly thereafter, The New York Times published a paper, and researcher Chen Piji of Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences published a photo of feathered dinosaurs also produced in Sihetun, North America at the 56th annual meeting of the vertebrate paleontology Society, which aroused great interest of the participants. After textual research and verification, the fossils held by Ji Qiang and Chen Piji all came from Sihetun, Beipiao, Liaoning Province. Fossils are all produced in shale deposited by a volcanic ash-bearing lake, with a thickness of 2-7 meters. The whole stratum is located in the lower part of a set of extremely thick strata called Yixian Formation in jehol group. These two fossils are individuals of the same animal. It was excavated by a farmer in Sihetun, and it was divided into two sections along the bedding of rock strata from the middle of fossils.
1996165438+10. In October, Philip, a famous Canadian dinosaur expert, came to China and proposed to go to geological museum, China to see the fossils of Chinese arowana. Ji Qiang agreed.
Philip was the first foreigner to see loong bird. After reading it, he put forward two viewpoints: first, it was a small carnivorous dinosaur. Second, the skin derivatives on fossils are primitive feathers. After Philip returned to China, he made several reports in public and always emphasized these two points.
China's discovery of feathered dinosaurs caused a sensation in the west. The Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences wants to get to the bottom of this matter. They plan to organize an expert group to visit China in the spring of 1997, and prepare to spend 100000 dollars to study it. But this matter was put on hold for various reasons.
Loong bird caused a sensation in the west, but also caused great controversy in China. Many people in the paleontology community have different views on this matter. In addition to academic journals, some domestic media also published articles questioning the identity and feathers of loong birds.
1In April, 1997, the Philadelphia Academy of Sciences sent five world-class dinosaur scientists to form an expedition team named "Dream Team" to China. Some of them are engaged in archaeopteryx research in Germany, supporting the hypothesis of bird origin, and some specialize in feathers. Ji Qiang first took them to visit the unearthed site of loong birds, and then took them to geological museum to see the fossil specimens. Ji Qiang asked them to speak frankly about their views and hoped to hold a press conference. The night before the press conference, several experts were still arguing fiercely and did not produce a press release. At the press conference the next day, five scientists came to the following conclusions: First, the skin derivative of loong bird may be a primitive feather or something similar, but it is very different from the feathers of modern birds; Secondly, structurally speaking, the Chinese dragon bird is a small carnivorous dinosaur; Third, western Liaoning, which produces loong birds, is a huge treasure house of fossils. Ji Qiang orally translated the inspection opinions of five experts to the press in China.
The "Dream Team" returned to Philadelphia and held a press conference on the discovery of the loong bird. At that time, Ji Qiang was in the United States for another thing that he was most concerned about and now he is most proud of-the establishment of the Changzhou Dinosaur Museum. I met American paleontologist Mark Norell in new york. He told Ji Qiang that the "dream team" people are looking for you. They will hold a press conference and ask you to be a special representative. At the press conference, Ostron, the first speaker, said, "I not only visited the wild, but also saw two specimens. I agree with Ji Qiang that it is a small carnivorous dinosaur with long feathers. This is one of the major scientific discoveries of this century. " The second speaker was Larry Martin, who said, "I have looked at this specimen carefully. It's not feathers at all, and the study of feathers and birds is of no value. I think it is similar to the subcutaneous collagen fiber structure of sea snakes. " Domestic media focused on the views of the opposition Martin.