BirdNote; China’s Golden Age of Fossil Discovery

BirdNote®

China’s Golden Age of Fossil Discovery

Written by Bob Sundstrom

This is BirdNote.

(NatureSFX 112 Spadefoot Toad chorus) (NatureSFX 044 Howler Monkey)

In the mid-1990s, a golden age of fossil discovery began in northeast China. Mesozoic fossils unearthed in the Liaoning (lee-OW---NING https://www.dictionary.com/browse/liaoning) region date from 120 to 160 million years ago. It was a time when feathered dinosaurs and early birds were both flourishing—and differentiating. It’s a crucial period for understanding the evolution of birds and their connection to feathered dinosaurs. And the quality and diversity of the fossils has blown scientists away.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=l1itEswPrgI.]

One volcanic eruption after another covered animals with mud and fine particles of ash. This prevented decomposition and preserved soft body parts as well as bones, a rare result reminiscent of Pompeii. Some dinosaurs were so well preserved that even their stomach contents can be examined.

The signature fossil of Liaoning found in the 1990s was the world’s first-known feathered dinosaur, Sinosauropteryx, (si-noh-sor-OP-tur-ix) “the China dragon bird”. Dozens more species have since turned up. One show-stopper is a small flying dinosaur, Microraptor, with four wing-like appendages.

(Merlin ML105837)

There’s no telling what will turn up next.

For BirdNote, I’m Michael Stein

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Senior Producer: John Kessler

Production Manager: Allison Wilson

Producer: Mark Bramhill

Associate Producer: Ellen Blackstone

Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Spadefoot Toad and Howler Monkey recorded by Gordon Hempton. Merlin ML105837 recorded by G. Keller

BirdNote’s theme was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.

© 2021 BirdNote May 2021 Narrator: Michael Stein

ID# dinosaur-02-2021-05-11 dinosaur-02

References:

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/great-chinese-dino-boom-1…

https://www.nwf.org/Magazines/National-Wildlife/2010/Bird-seeds

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/prehistoric-world/china-foss…