被视为恐龙的鸟

尽管于 2 0世纪 2 0年代在亚洲地表层首次发现长有羽毛的恐龙和著名的“龙骨突位点” ,关于鸟类起源的争论仍没有休止。来自化石的证据表明 ,鸟类在进化分支上应归于兽脚类的特殊分支。本文主要阐明完好无损的化石揭示的鸟和非鸟类恐龙的亲密关系和鸟类羽毛及鸟类出现以前的羽毛的起源证据 ,分析体型缩小对飞行进化的重要意义及从新的角度论述鸟类如何飞上了天

Birds as dinosaurs

The "great debate" over bird origins may never have transpired had the now-famous furcula-bearing, feathered dinosaurs from Asia surfaced when the beds in which they were interred were first discovered in the 1920s. Compelling fossil evidence is now to hand that places birds as a specialized clade within theropod dinosaurs. Major insights include a more seamless fossil record linking birds and non-avian dinosaurs, clear evidence of an early pre-avian origin for feathers and other features previously known only among birds, together with an underscoring of the importance of miniaturization for the evolution of powered flight and a broadening of the functional scenarios for how powered bird flight was first achievedActa Zoologica Sinica 50(6):991-1001,2004].