A few graphics...
Posted on 10/21/2002 10:48:21 AM PDT by Enemy Of The State
| "Dinosaurs are not extinct, and their descendants are living in the same world as humans." Sounds like an advertisement for a science fiction story. The words, printed on the name card of a Chinese paleontologist, reflect the landmark findings and the latest research. Chinese scientists are making a big impact on world paleontological research as they have discovered the most extraordinary fossils over the past decade. "China has complex tectonic plates and abundant fossils, and the discovery of many rare fossils in recent years has attracted the attention of the international scientific community," said Yang Zunyi, a 94-year-old academician from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the top scientific research body in the country. Outstanding Paleontological FossilsGuizhou, one of China's economically backward provinces, standsout at the beginning of the 21st century because of its numerous unique paleontological discoveries. It has become known worldwide as the "Kingdom of fossils (or of paleontology)."The earliest known animal embryo fossil, roughly 670 million years old, was found beautifully preserved in phosphorite rock in southern Guizhou. Another 220 million years old fossil site in the province yielded a world treasure of rich and finely preserved specimens of encrinite and aquicolous reptiles. "Paleontologists are flocking to Guizhou from all over the world. They feel they are fortunate to be able to see such unique fossils and to have chance to further their research," Dr. Wang Shangyan, general engineer of the geological and mineral survey bureau of the province, says. The complex geology and diverse climate here has helped the survival of the world's largest forest of spindle tree ferns throughout the same latitudes and the dinosaur's favorite food in the Mesozoic era. In local museums, various types of dinosaur fossils are on display and speak of the evolution of eons. Outside the Guizhou Province, new stunning fossil discoveries have been made throughout the country over the past few years. These discoveries all contributed to what paleontologists worldwide call the "rewriting of the evolutionary book of life". Birds OriginSince the 1990s many feathered dinosaurs' fossils have been found in western Liaoning Province, northeast China. Subsequent research linked the feather-like skins of the fossils to the plumage of birds. The feathered fossil specimen was later named Sinosauropteryx.The link between dinosaurs and birds was first proposed by British scientist Dr. Thomas Henry Huxley in the mid-1800s. Paleontologists split into the two groups who continued sometimes acrimonious debates over avian origins and whether or not there was a link with dinosaurs. The fossilized Sinosauropteryx is believed to be the dinosaur-bird link. The discovery answered the question about the appearance of "protofeathers" and so gave convincing evidence of the evolution of birds from small theropods, carnivorous bipedal dinosaurs with small forelimbs. An even more startling find was made on July 22, 2002, in Liaoning's Yixian County, where Chinese scientists discovered the fossil of what was described as the Shenzhouraptor Sinensis, a theropod dinosaur that had been able to fly. The discovery, the only parallel to Archaeopteryx, the most primitive avialae bird found in Germany in 1860, gave key proof tothe theory of the evolution of birds from dinosaurs. The dove-sized Cretaceous Shenzhouraptor Sinensis, was only the second such primitive bird-type creature ever found in the world. It was at the same evolutionary stage as the Archaeopteryx, according to Dr. Ji Qiang, the fossil finder who worked with the Institute of Geology of the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences. Judging from its shoulder girdle, beak, breastbone, limbs and feathers, avian paleontologists were certain that the new avialae bird was really capable of flight and is the missing link between theropod dinosaurs and modern birds. Critics have long said the research into the evolution of birds from dinosaurs has lacked "the vital intermediary link." The discovery of the Shenzhouraptor Sinensis has filled the gap. This discovery not only put an end to the long-standing debates but unfolded a new landscape for further research," said Zhang Hongtao,deputy head of the China Geological Survey. Vertebrates and PlantsYunnan Province, in south China, is another paleontological hotspot. The fossils of fish-like creatures that could be the earliest known vertebrates were found in 1999 on the outskirts of Kunming, capital of Yunnan in southwest China. The creature, older than the previously found Wenchang Fish thought of the ancestor of vertebrates, was named the Haikouichtyus.Being the world's oldest fish aged more than half a billion years, the Haikouichtyus has extended by a startling 50 million years the time when key features of vertebrates appeared. This finding was hailed by an American scholar as "an extraordinary achievement by humans in the remodeling the history of life on earth." Back in western Liaoning Province, Chinese botanists found the fossils of the most primitive species of angiosperm, a plant whose ovules are enclosed in an ovary, according to the official website of the China Geological Survey. A new family based on the finds has been set up within the angiosperm phylum. For a century, debate continued about the time and place of the origin of angiosperm. The discovery of the new genus has assured a solution to the problem. The respected US Journal Science dedicated nine pages of stories and graphics in its first issue last year to give credit to China's outstanding research into paleontological fossils in recent years. "Within lees than a decade, there have been found in China a staggering array of fossils of great significance to key evolutionary phases of life, and the country's paleontological research has jumped from being unremarkable to being the mainstay internationally," said Henry Gee, senior biology editor of the prestigious Nature journal based in Britain. "I know many unique fossil specimens are still being researched, and I believe more spectacular findings will surface in near future in China," Ma Fucheng, deputy director of China's National Committee for Natural Sciences Fund, noted. |
This glowing report has the sound of a nation trying to prove it's own relevance. "Yes, we have a thriving scientific community that is making groundbreaking discoveries that are leading the world in it's understanding of Tectonics and Paleontology." Uh hugh...
Haven't you heard? According to the creationists who hang out in our threads, all of evolution is an atheist-communist-Nazi-abortionist-liberal plot. Just ask them. From their point of view, it was probably inevitable that the chicoms would join in.
A few graphics...
 |
|
|
This much larger Sinosauropteryx specimen of what appears to be a more mature or adult animal was discovered in 1997. The fossil contains the remains of the creature’s last meal, the jawbones of an early mammal.
Most early theropod dinosaurs retained the meat-eating habits inherited from the distant ancestor they share in common with living crocodilians. Sinosauropteryx was no exception: the large, sharply pointed, prehensile teeth that lined its jaws had serrated edges well suited to rending prey too large to be swallowed whole. By that standard modern-day birds have unusual diets of insects, fruits and seeds. But that variety seems less unusual when birds, some species of which weigh less than a penny, are considered as part of a huge array of dinosaurs that have adapted to fill many ecological niches.
 |
|
|
The last common ancestor shared by crocodilians and birds was a macrocarnivore, that is, it regularly fed on large prey. Plant eating evolved later in such important dinosaur lineages as ornithischians (e.g., Stegosaurus, Triceratops) and sauropods (e.g., Apatosaurus, Camarasaurus). But the teeth and jaws of bird-line archosaurs were well suited to seizing, subduing and ingesting large prey. As in the ancestral archosaur, for example, the lower jaw was set lower on the skull, thus increasing the gape of the bite. Its heavy jaw muscles were modified to magnify the speed and power of that bite.
Theropod dinosaurs added further refinements. One, a joint between the muscle- and tooth-bearing parts of the lower jaw, increased the width of the gape, facilitating the ingestion of even larger food items. Note that in Sinosauropteryx the lower jaws are not fused together at the chin as they are in modern birds; instead elastic ligaments enabled the jaws to spread apart at their tips, also contributing to a wider gape.
 |
|
|
Discovered only three years ago in 1996, this small Sinosauropteryx was the first non-flying dinosaur fossil found to have feather impressions. We think it was a juvenile because a similar looking but much larger individual was found nearby the following year. The joint coincidence of small body size and downy plumage at such an early stage in theropod evolution—well before the evolution of the modern avian flight apparatus—suggests that the role of feathers in retaining body heat preceded their function in flight.
Sinosauropteryx retains several primitive features—such as very short arms—indicating that it is the least bird-like of the theropod dinosaurs preserved in this ancient Chinese lake bed. Nevertheless, its body is already covered with downy plumes that provide a glimpse of the earliest known stage in feather evolution. Sinosauropteryx feathers are composed of fine filaments branching from hollow quills, rather like down feathers in birds today.
Although individual feathers in Sinosauropteryx are hard to pick out, they all appear about the same size and shape. This contrasts with feathers on the hand (remiges), tail (retrices), and body (contour) feathers that evolved later in dinosaurs. These feathers can vary considerably in size and shape on different parts of the body. And unlike Sinosauropteryx feathers, the filaments in “aerodynamic” feathers of living birds are tightly bound together by tiny hooks, thus forming clean, sharp-edged outlines and broad, fixed, aerodynamic surfaces.
Sinosauropteryx Adult | Sinosauropteryx Juvenile | Protarchaeopteryx | Caudipteryx | Confuciusornis
The Excavation Site | The Chinese Fossils | Cladograms | Credits
[ Visiting the Peabody | Events & Programs | Exhibits | Visit the Collections ]
[ Membership | Publications | Museum Store | Public Education | Peabody People | History & Architecture ]
PEABODY MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY Yale University
P.O. Box 208118 — 170 Whitney Avenue — New Haven, CT 06520-8118 — (203) 432-5050
All contents copyright (c) 1998–2002 Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University. All rights reserved.
Comments to: peabody.webmaster@yale.edu
Their idea of independent and earlier evolution in China is an official state theory comparable to the Americans' official state theory of the earliest humans in America. Comparable in that both are subject to revision as actual data pours in.
Dino-noodle soup bump.
Cladograms depend on two main scientific ideas. The first is that time flows in one direction only. The cladogram represents this by moving strictly from left to right. Thus, common ancestors of related groups must arise prior to these descendants in time, just as in genealogy parents arise before their children.
Date:
| middle Barremian |
Date:
| middle Barremian |
Date:
| Tithonian |
Age estimates are in millions of years ago (Mega anna, or Ma). Margin of error is in millions of years to two standard deviations.
| Era | Period | Epoch | Age | End | Error | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cenozoic | 0 | 0 | ||||
| Mesozoic | Cretaceous | Late | Senonian | Maastrichtian | 65.0 | 0.1 |
| Campanian | 71.0 | 0.5 | ||||
| Santonian | 83.5 | 0.5 | ||||
| Coniacian | 85.8 | 0.5 | ||||
| Gallic | Turonian | 89.9 | 0.5 | |||
| Cenomanian | 93.5 | 0.2 | ||||
| Early | Albian | 98.9 | 0.6 | |||
| Aptian | 112.2 | 1.1 | ||||
| Barremian | 121.0 | 1.4 | ||||
| Neocomian | Hauterivian | 127.0 | 1.6 | |||
| Valanginian | 132.0 | 1.9 | ||||
| Berriasian | 137.0 | 2.2 | ||||
| Jurassic | Late | Malm | Tithonian | 144.2 | 2.6 | |
| Kimmeridgian | 150.7 | 3.0 | ||||
| Oxfordian | 154.1 | 3.2 | ||||
| Middle | Dogger | Callovian | 159.4 | 3.6 | ||
| Bathonian | 164.4 | 3.8 | ||||
| Bajocian | 169.2 | 4.0 | ||||
| Aalenian | 176.5 | 4.0 | ||||
Laugh out loud funny. I can see a whole new set of creationist posts from this point forward. I only speak Cantonese though.
Look at the source of the article Patrick! Another great fountain of truth eh! The Chicomm People's Daily! You guys are a riot!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.