鸟类是插上翅膀的恐龙吗?

近年，越来越多的化石证据表明：过去长期被认为只有鸟类才有的，并作为鸟类区别于其他脊椎动物的一些重要特征，如羽毛、叉骨、胸骨、尾综骨、前肢可折叠于体侧、眼眶与下颞孔相连的头骨及耻骨向侧后伸展的骨盆等，却也在1亿多年前的不少小型兽足类恐龙身上或多或少地存在。于是，越来越多的人们相信鸟类是从小型兽足类恐龙起源。但迄今发现的所有具鸟类特征的恐龙，在时间上却晚于或至多也只是接近目前公认的最早鸟类——晚侏罗世的始祖鸟，而原始鸟类双弓型头骨似乎在暗示：鸟类可能起源于比恐龙更古老的初龙类。这些都对鸟类起源于恐龙的假说提出了质疑。就目前的化石记录而言，鸟类和兽足类恐龙系统演化关系密切是毋庸质疑的。但由于至今未找到在时间上足以演化出鸟类的更古老近裔恐龙，因此还不能说恐龙就是鸟类的祖先。它们可能只是与原始鸟类平行独立发展的姊妹群，二者也许出自一个共同祖先。     

A polar dinosaur feather assemblage from Australia

Exceptionally preserved Mesozoic feathered dinosaur fossils (including birds) are famous, but recognized from only very few localities worldwide, and are especially rare in the Southern Hemisphere. Here we report an assemblage of non-avian and avian dinosaur feathers from an Early Cretaceous polar (around 70°S) environment in what is now southeastern Australia. The recovered remains incorporate small (10–30 mm long) basal paravian-like tufted body feathers, open-vaned contour feathers, and asymmetrical bird-like wing feathers that possess high-angled barbs with possible remnants of barbicels — amongst the geologically oldest observed to date. Such morphological diversity augments scant skeletal evidence for a range of insulated non-avian theropods and birds inhabiting extreme southern high-latitude settings during the Mesozoic. Although some of these fossil feathers exhibit what may be residual patterning, most are uniformly toned and preserve rod-shaped microbodies, as well as densely-packed microbody imprints on the barbules that are structurally consistent with eumelanosomes. Geochemical analysis detected no identifiable residual biomolecules, which we suspect were lost via hydrolysis and oxidization during diagenesis and weathering. Nevertheless, an originally dark pigmentation can be reasonably inferred from these melanic traces, which like the coloured feathers of modern birds, might have facilitated crypsis, visual communication and/or thermoregulation in a cold polar habitat.     

Lithornithid birds (Aves,Palaeognathae) from the Lower Palaeogene of Denmark

An incomplete sternum and imprints of a right part pelvis and an associated left femur from the uppermost Palaeocene/lowermost Eocene (Fur Formation) of Denmark are assigned to the extinct palaeognath bird order Lithornithiformes Houde 1988, and to the single described family thereof, the Lithornithidae. Morphological features indicate that both individuals were adult birds, smaller than Lithornis cf. nasi, which is represented by an incomplete humerus from the largely contemporaneous, marine Olst Formation in Denmark, and corresponding in size to the smallest known lithornithid, Lithornis hookeri. Lithornithiformes, common in the Palaeocene and Eocene of North America and Europe, were terrestrial birds capable of flight whose remains are often found in aquatic sediments. Both the depositional environment in which the Danish lithornithids were found, and the associated faunal components suggest that the birds were not transported by rivers. Some of the lithornithid species inhabiting NW Europe may have lived and foraged along the shores of the North Sea Basin.     

Evolution of the Grenada and Tobago basins and implications for arc migration

The tectonic mechanisms controlling how volcanic arcs migrate through space and geologic time within dynamic subduction environments is a fundamental tectonic process that remains poorly understood. This paper presents an integrated stratigraphic and tectonic evolution of Late Cretaceous to Recent volcanic arcs and associated basins in the southeastern Caribbean Sea using seismic reflection data, wide-angle seismic refraction data, well data, and onland geologic data. We propose a new tectonic model for the opening of the Grenada and Tobago basins and the 50-250-km eastward jump of arc volcanism from the Late Cretaceous Aves Ridge to the Miocene to Recent Lesser Antilles arc in the southeast Caribbean based on the mapping of three seismic megasequences. The striking similarity of the half-graben structure of the Grenada and Tobago basins that flank the Lesser Antilles arc, their similar smooth basement character, their similar deep-marine seismic facies, and their similar Paleogene sediment thickness mapped on a regional grid of seismic data suggest that the two basins formed as a single, saucer-shaped, oceanic crust Paleogene forearc basin adjacent to the now dormant Aves Ridge. This single forearc basin continued to extend and widen through flexural subsidence during the early to middle Eocene probably because of slow rollback of the subducting Atlantic oceanic slab. Rollback may have been accelerated by oblique collision of the southern Aves Ridge and southern Lesser Antilles arc with the South American continent. Uplift and growth of the southern Lesser Antilles arc divided the Grenada and Tobago basins by early to middle Miocene time. Inversion of normal faults and uplift effects along both edges of the Lesser Antilles arc are most pronounced in its southern zone of arc collision with the South American continent. The late Miocene to Recent depositional histories of the Grenada and Tobago basins are distinct because of isolation of the Grenada basin by growth and uplift of the Neogene Lesser Antilles volcanic ridge.     

鸟类的昨天、今天和明天:起源与演化

鸟类是现生生物中最具特色的动物之一，以其发育了许多独特的形态特征区别于其他的现生生物，如羽毛、角质喙、中空的骨骼、叉骨、具龙骨突的胸骨、尾综骨、对握状的脚趾等等。长期来人们一直想知道鸟类究竟由哪一类生物演化发展而来。但苦于化石材料的贫乏，鸟类的起源问题一直是个令人头疼的迷团，困扰我们长达140多年。通过回顾自19世纪中期以来世界上各种鸟类起源假说，指出随着中国辽西中华龙鸟、原始祖鸟、尾羽鸟等珍稀化石的发现，国际鸟类起源问题已基本上得到解决。越来越多的人相信：鸟类是由恐龙变来的，现代的鸟类就是恐龙的后代，是长羽毛的“恐龙”。