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Science 8 December 2000:
Vol. 290. no. 5498, pp. 1955 - 1959
DOI: 10.1126/science.290.5498.1955
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Reports

A Primitive Enantiornithine Bird and the Origin of Feathers

Fucheng Zhang,* Zhonghe Zhou

A fossil enantiornithine bird, Protopteryx fengningensis gen. et sp. nov., was collected from the Early Cretaceous Yixian Formation of Northern China. It provides fossil evidence of a triosseal canal in early birds. The manus and the alular digit are long, as in Archaeopteryx and Confuciusornis, but are relatively short in other enantiornithines. The alula or bastard wing is attached to an unreduced alular digit. The two central tail feathers are scalelike without branching. This type of feather may suggest that modern feathers evolved through the following stages: (i) elongated scale, (ii) central shaft, (iii) barbs, and finally (iv) barbules and barbicel.

Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Post Office Box 643, Beijing 100044, China.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: fuchengzhang{at}yeah.net

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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
From the Cover: Discovery of an ornithurine bird and its implication for Early Cretaceous avian radiation.
Z. Zhou and F. Zhang (2005)
PNAS 102, 18998-19002
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Mechanics of wing-assisted incline running (WAIR).
M. W. Bundle and K. P. Dial (2003)
J. Exp. Biol. 206, 4553-4564
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
PROGRESS AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS IN ARCHOSAUR PHYLOGENETICS.
(2001)
Journal of Paleontology 75, 1185-1201


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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)