Beipiao City of Liaoning Province
used to be an unknown town in North China. However, the successive discovery of
precious and rare fossils of Confucius birds and China bird-dinosaurs turned
this region renowned to the world in the turn of a hand.
The Confucius bird was similar to a
chicken in size. It had beaks in analog to that of bird population. The tailbone
was shortened, and the forelimbs turned into wings. It had no teeth, but the big
robust claw hook still remains. Compared with the archaeopteryx of Germany,
Confucius bird had closer relationship with bird population of modern times. So
it is likely that Confucius bird is the true ancestor of the bird population.
The discovery overwrites the record that German archaeopteryx is the ancestor of
the bird population, and proves that the ancestor of birds is in China. In
addition to this, there are only 7 archaeopteryx fossils found in Germany, while
hundreds of Confucius bird fossils have been found in China, most of which are
preserved in good condition.
Fossils of Chinese bird dinosaur has
the following characters: body length of about 68cm, low and long skull, small
cranium cerebra, long hind limbs, short and strong forelimbs, long tail, body
covered with long and thick hair, and beak armed with sharp sawteeth. Originally
considered as bird species, it was finally classified into dinosaur species
after careful study by Chinese ancient biologist and named as "Chinese bird
dinosaur". Because, by far, fossil remains of dinosaur skin found all over the
world are nothing more than several pieces of debris with no feather attached,
the fossils of Chinese bird dinosaur with feather become the important evidence
based on which we study the biologic evolution. It is also well-known all over
the world; the cover of newly published Encyclopedia of Dinosaur, a book
composed by more than 100 scholars from different parts of the world, is a
Chinese bird dinosaur!
Other than the fossil remains
of ancient bird and bird series, some fossil remains of other ancient extinct
lives were found in Beipiao City, including no less than 400 fossils of insects
such as dragonflies and bees. What is more, all these fossils are preserved in
perfect condition. Beipiao is also rich in phytolith, among which the most
attractive is the most immemorial anthophyta -- Liaoning ancient fruit. The
discovery of Liaoning ancient fruit brought forward the time of evolution of
gymnosperm for 15 million years and proved that anthophyta originated in
China.