China discovers two species of 160 million-year-old "little flying beast" - gliding mammals (double-toothed, fork-like ancestral-winged beasts)

In the origin of birds, there is another kind of creature also left the earth "flying" into the sky.
a joint study by Chinese and American scientists, gliding mammals were born on Earth 160 million years ago.
were found in the late Jurassic strata on August 9th, and the international authoritative academic journal Nature published two series of articles, "The New Gliding Mammals of the Jurassic Period" and "New Evidence of mammals' Middle Ear and Predator Adaptation evolution in the Jurassic Ecosystem", which presented the results of two of the world's most primitive, leather-winged gliding mammal fossils.
two papers were published by an international team from the Beijing Museum of Nature, the University of Chicago and Hebei University of Geology.
chinese and foreign research teams are led by Meng Qingjin, a researcher at the Beijing Museum of Nature, and Professor Luo Zhexi of the University of Chicago.
Meng Qingjin told the Beijing News that the study is of great scientific significance for studying the evolution of Jurassic mammals, proving that the diversity of mammals during the Jurassic period was far greater than people thought, breaking with traditional perceptions.
animals were found in the late Jurassic formations of Jianchang County in Liaoning Province and Qinglong County in Hebei Province about 160 million years old.
they are the ancestors of modern mammals, all of which were the early differentiation and extinction of the mammalian evolutionary tree, the new genus of the thieves.
one of them was named the fork-like ancestral winged beast, weighing about 120g-170g.
another species, named the Bistro-Toothed Beast, weighs about 35 grams-55 grams and is a typical mesothic small mammal.
After three years of fossil restoration, research, and matching, the researchers found that their body structures were similar to those of the currently living gliding mammals, and that their collarbones and collarbones were conversed with the shape of the birds' fork bones, thus determining that the two mammals were gliding animals and the most primitive mammals.
The new findings prove that mammals have evolved into the air, said Zhou Zhonghe, director of the Institute of Paleontology and Paleo-Human research at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and that the findings are of great value for a clearer understanding of the face of biodiversity during the Jurassic period and for restoring the ecological environment of the time.
", we can better understand evolution and the important role that natural selection plays in shaping life as it evolves.
," Zhou Zhonghe said.
view, the earliest mammals had little difference in physical structure and limited opportunities to live in different ecological environments.
but the discovery of these two new species not only enriches the understanding of early mammal species, but also proves that mammals have evolved from ground-based habitat to aerial motion.
these mammals, which originated from tree-dwelling ancestors, eventually left the earth and the trees flew into the sky and evolved into a new look.
like a maiopatagium furculiferum.
160 million years ago, he weighed about 120 grams to 170 grams and was of medium build in mesogenic mammals.
fossils were found in Jianchang County, Liaoning Province.
a double-toothed beast (Vilevolodon diplomylos).
160 million years ago, weighing about 35 grams to 55 grams, it was a typical mesothic mammal.
fossils were found in Qinglong County, Hebei Province.
like a fork bone ancestral wing beast restoration map (Zhao Cheng painting).
because its collarbone and interlocking collarbone have healed to form a "Y" shape, similar to the shape of the flying bird's fork bone, so the species name is named like a fork bone. Meng Qingjin, head of the Chinese team at the
Dialogue Research Project and director of the Beijing Museum of Nature, said they may have "flyed" into the sky earlier than birds and the birds' front and back feet originated in the Jurassic Beijing News: How complete are these two animal fossils? Meng Qingjin: The fossils are complete, the wings, feathers, bones are very complete, very beautifully preserved membrane and hair structure.
Beijing News: How to tell if these two fossils belong to mammals that can glide? Meng Qingjin: From the fossils, it can be seen that the skin wing of the ancestral and toothed beasts is connected between the neck, front and rear limbs and tail vertebrae, forming the frontal skin wing (membrane), flanked wing (membrane) and tail skin wing (membrane), similar to the gliding skin wing (membrane) of existing mammals.
other notable bone feature of them is that the collarbone and the collarbone have healed to form a "Y" shape similar to that of the bird's fork bone.
other forebraer bone joints show flexible movement characteristics, and the proportion of limb bones has many morphological characteristics associated with gliding function, which fully indicates that these mammals are gliding animals.
Beijing News: The report mentions that they adapt to life in the air earlier than birds? Meng Qingjin: It's a possibility.
two of the most primitive mammals, birds, appeared in similar times.
animals appeared 160 million years ago, and the birds originated about 150 million years ago, both in the Jurassic era.
that era, we also found feathered dinosaur fossils, so during that period different species have to fly, gliding evolution.
the diversity of early mammals is beyond imagination: What are the two animals' habitat and food? Meng Qingjin: According to the study, both animals are tree species.
modern gliding mammals are basically plant-eating, and these two gliding mammals are similar to the tooth forms of many modern flying animals, indicating that their food ecology is also similar.
Because flower quintiles did not dominate the flora during the Jurassic period, these thief animals should be the late Jurassic known ferns, as well as the late Jurassic known ferns, as well as the iron, ginkgo, pine cypress and other naked plants as the main food, mainly eat the softer parts of the plant, such as fresh leaves, neutron tissue, chlor fruit and possible seed ferns reproductive structure.
Beijing News: What is the significance of the discovery of the ancestral winged beast and the xiang-toothed beast for the study of mammals? Meng Qingjin: It means a lot.
discovery enriches our understanding of the ecological diversity of early mammals.
conventional view, early mammals did not have much difference in their physical structure and limited ecological opportunities to live in different environments.
but based on years of research, including this project, we have demonstrated the amazing diversity and extensive ecological adaptability of early mammals.
these new discoveries continue to rewrite the evolutionary history of mammals and change our understanding and understanding of meso-generation mammals.
the two animals in this study are an important transition in mammalian evolution, and these mammals, which originated from tree-dwelling ancestors, eventually leave the earth and trees and fly into the sky, adding a new ecological space to mammals.
mammals have no way to enjoy food in the air if they don't evolve the way they glide.
The Chinese and American teams have studied dinosaur feather color: What has the team done in the past three years since the fossils were discovered in 2014? Meng Qingjin: Over the past 3 years, we have done a lot of basic research, including fossil restoration, bone structure description, measurement, analysis of motion patterns, CT scanning, 3D modeling and so on.
What is more important is to compare with the available data, especially with the behavior and structure of modern gliding mammals, we selected more than 80 species for comparative analysis, and finally determined to belong to gliding mammals, the workload is very large.
Beijing News: How do the two Research Teams of China and the United States divide their labor? Meng Qingjin: The two teams have been working together for more than ten years and have done a lot of projects.
project is divided according to the degree of species discovery and their respective strengths.
Beijing News: What are the results of the two teams over the past ten years? Meng Qingjin: We and the University of Chicago have been working on new mammals in the Jurassic formations of northeastern China, including tree-climbing, tree-climbing, and cave-like, short-fingered, gliding mammals.
long-term collaboration has been published several times in the journal Nature and Science.
we also collaborated on other times and projects, such as the study of the color of dinosaur feathers, and almost every year papers were published in the world's core journals.
.