China's spectacular feathered fossils have finally answered the century-old question about the ancestors of today's birds
- By Richard Stone
- Photographs by Stefen Chow
A key Chinese discovery was a primitive bird called Confuciusornis, identified by Zhou Zhonghe.
Discoverer of more dinosaur species than any other living scientist, Xu Xing, with a cast of parrot-faced Psittacosaurus, says some dinosaurs have birdlike traits, including feathers.
Some paleontologists now say Archaeopteryx may have been a feathered non-avian dinosaur.
One of the most unexpected Chinese fossils in Microraptor. It had four feathered limbs and almost certainly could fly. But unlike birds, it did not escape extinction.
The Yixian Formation also yielded Sinosauropteryx, the first physical evidence of a feathered dinosaur.
Some dinosaurs engaged in distinctly birdlike behaviors, such as nesting and brooding. Shown here is a partially reconstructed Oviraptor fossil from Mongolia with 20 eggs.
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