Professor Zhang FuCheng and his colleagues discovered and named a new confuciusornithid bird, Eoconfuciusornis zhengi, gen. et sp. nov. that lived 131 million years ago. It is the most primitive member of Family Confuciusornithidae and thus extends the lifespan of this family to 11Ma. In addition, Eoconfuciusornis and its relatives have many osteological transformations and represent an early adaptation toward improved flight in the evolution of Confuciusornithidae.
This paper is published in volume 51, number 5 (May, 2008) of Science in China, and the authors are Zhang FuCheng, Zhou ZhongHe and Michael J BENTON.
Confuciusornithids are a basal bird group that lived from 120¨D125 million years ago. Eoconfuciusornis belongs to confuciusornithids for possessing some key characters such as the toothless upper and lower jaws and the forked rostral end of mandibular symphysis.
Eoconfuciusornis and its relatives show many osteological transformations, for instance, the increase in the size of deltopectoral crest of the humerus and of the keel of the sternum. These features provide osteological evidence for increasing flight power throughout the 11 million years of confuciusornithids' evolution.
IVPP is short for "Institution of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleonanthropology", which is a research institute under the Chinese Academy of Sciences with many renowned vertebrate paleontologists and important collections.
This research is supported by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. KZCX3-SW-142), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 40472018, 40121202), the Major Basic Research Projects of the Ministry of Science and Technology of the People's Republic of China (Grant No. 2006CB806400), and the Royal Society and Natural Environment Research Council (Grant No. NE/E011055/1)
Reference: ZHANG FuCheng, ZHOU ZhongHe, Michael J BENTON. A primitive confuciusornithid bird from China and its implications for early avian flight. Science in China Series D: Earth Sciences 2008; 5(51):1-15