I believe that most people living in Taiwan Province province of China want to have thousands of freely usable banknotes. As a paleontologist, on the one hand, I fantasize that there are countless thousand-dollar bills that can be spent in the wild to explore the mystery of the extinction and survival of ancient creatures. On the other hand, I often stare at the Teutonic (scientific name: Syrmaticus mikado, common name is often called "black-tailed pheasant") on the thousand-yuan bill and think about how Teutonic in Taiwan Province Province of China evolved.

The first dinosaur fossil, a part of the tarsometatarsal bone of the pheasant's left foot, was found on thousand-dollar bills in Taiwan Province province of China and Taiwan Province province of China. The roast chicken on Cai's table and the sparrows in the park are real dinosaurs! Thinking about such paleontological problems may be a little different from most people's imagination of paleontological research-under the far-reaching influence of Jurassic Park, it seems that only dinosaurs such as Tyrannosaurus Rex and Triceratops, which mainly appeared in Mesozoic, can be regarded as real paleontological research. But it is also the pleasure of discovering new knowledge of paleontology or other basic research. With the movie Jurassic Park almost popular all over the world in 1993, more people and funds are invested in paleontology research. Up to now, the dinosaur textbook I use in class (dinosaur paleontology written by S. Brusatte) clearly States that the definition of dinosaurs is

The last common ancestor of the extinct Triceratops and the living sparrows, and the descendants of this common ancestor are dinosaurs.

In other words, we will see sparrows in our daily life, delicious chicken and duck dishes on the table and so on. They are all real flying dinosaurs and dinosaur food. That is to say, when we turn to the biodiversity records of Taiwan Province Province in China, there are more than 600 species of birds in Taiwan Province Province in China, which means there are more than 600 species of dinosaurs in Taiwan Province Province in China-but what is even more exciting is that there are about 30 species of dinosaurs endemic to Taiwan Province Province in China! Di Teheng, who boarded the thousand-dollar bill in Taiwan Province Province, China, is basically one of the representative species of dinosaurs in Taiwan Province Province, China.

The delicious roast chicken on the table is a real dinosaur. With this knowledge, Pexels can find and excavate "non-bird dinosaurs" such as Tyrannosaurus Rex, Raptors and Triceratops that were completely extinct 66 million years ago, even though there are basically no Mesozoic sedimentary strata exposed on the surface in the paleontological research in Taiwan Province Province, China. But after entering the Cenozoic era, the evolution of dinosaurs was still quite vigorous. At this moment, in the basic classification of biodiversity, the number of dinosaurs we call "birds" is about 654.38+00000, about twice that of modern mammals!

There are dinosaur fossils in Taiwan Province province, China, but no one is looking for them. Under such a knowledge framework, there must be dinosaur fossils in Taiwan Province Province, China, and there must be a new generation. After all, there are more than 600 kinds of dinosaurs and 30 unique dinosaurs that don't suddenly appear, and they should have a long history of origin and evolution. As first mentioned in Taiwan Province Province, China, the well-known Teutonic people are endemic. It won't be endemic when it first came to Taiwan Province Province, China, but it must have become an endemic species in Taiwan Province after its unknown "ancestor" came to Taiwan Province Province, China, through a unique survival course and generation evolution, which can only be seen in Taiwan Province Province, China.

Surprisingly, from the early paleontologists in Japan, such as the famous Hayasaka, Ichiro, during the Japanese occupation of Taiwan Province Province in China, they began to systematically explore and study the fossils in Taiwan Province Province in China. There was not even a formal dinosaur fossil record, but a big duck egg hung high. But this is also the importance of scientific research and thinking. Even though there is no official dinosaur fossil record in Taiwan Province Province of China for a long time, as mentioned above, there are so many dinosaurs in Taiwan Province Province of China, especially about 30 species of endemic dinosaurs, and there must be dinosaur fossils under our feet. Of course, it is not easy to find them, but they are still buried and sleeping in sedimentary rocks somewhere, waiting for us to systematically invest corresponding resources and efforts to explore-after all, fossils will not come to us and say, please study us.

Hayasaka, Ichiro. Before Wikimedia moved back from Japan to Taiwan Province Province, China, and set up the vertebrate paleontology research laboratory in the Department of Life Sciences, Taiwan Province University, China, one of my research directions included finding and studying dinosaur fossils in Taiwan Province Province, China, which is still unknown and ignored. Not surprisingly, when I really come back, almost everyone will ask me, "Are there really dinosaur fossils to study in Taiwan Province Province, China?" "and so on. It is of little use to infer from paleontology that there must be dinosaur fossils before there is definite evidence. After all, most people just want to see the dinosaur fossils actually found in Taiwan Province province, China.

The fossil hunter in Taiwan Province province of China and Taiwan Province province of China seems very small, but if he really goes to the wild, he will feel that the wild places he can go to and the fossil specimens he can find are extremely limited. However, paleontology in Taiwan Province Province of China actually started from the Japanese occupation period. In addition to Hayasaka, Ichiro and other Japanese paleontologists writing related research articles, Hayasaka, Ichiro also trained a local "fossil hunter" in Taiwan Province Province, China, such as Chen Chunmu, known as the fossil grandfather. After the end of World War II, Hayasaka, Ichiro and other researchers returned to Japan one after another, but Chen Chunmu still quietly collected relevant fossil specimens in Tainan, which influenced some local people and drove more people to become fossil hunters together.

Chen Chunmu died in 2002 before I had a chance to meet him. But when I went to Tainan to look for fossils in the wild, I also contacted later fossil hunters to discuss the situation and possibility of paleontological research in Taiwan Province Province, China. During the period, I also contacted Hou Liren, a well-known but low-key fossil collector in Tainan. From time to time, I said that I was looking for dinosaur fossils (that is, "bird" fossils) in Taiwan Province Province, China. After many visits and discussions, Hou Liren took out a fossil specimen that he had collected for more than 20 years-it was clear that it was a short metatarsal bone of a dinosaur foot.

When I was super excited, after * * * discussion, Hou Liren was also willing to donate this hard-won fossil specimen, which is extremely rare in the field of paleontology research in Taiwan Province Province, China, to me, so that this fossil specimen can be permanently preserved and further studied in the collection system of vertebrate paleontology Evolution and Diversity Laboratory of the Department of Life Sciences, Taiwan Province University, China!

With the fossil specimens donated by Hou Liren, the dinosaur fossil record in Taiwan Province, China Province is no longer blank! This discovery has also been officially published in the International Journal of Ornithology.

The first dinosaur fossil in Taiwan Province Province, China, is a member of the Pheasant family together with Emperor Pheasant and Blue-bellied Pheasant. This new generation of bird dinosaurs lived about 400,000 to 800,000 years ago and appeared in what is now Tainan. Even if the fossil specimen is incomplete, only a small section of the distal end of the tarsometatarsal bone of the left foot (the exact name of the bone structure is tarsometatarsal bone) is preserved completely, which is enough for us to engage in subsequent morphological analysis and research.

The upper articular surface of the tarsometatarsal third pulley is asymmetric, which is a key feature that can be identified as a member of the order galliformes. Further observation of this fossil specimen on the hand shows that the distance between the second, third or third and fourth pulley structures of the tarsometatarsal bone is not large, and the structure of the second pulley bends towards the plantar surface, which clearly points out that this fossil specimen only preserves the length of the distal end of the tarsometatarsal bone about 2 cm and belongs to the pheasant.

Fig. 2: The first dinosaur fossil in Taiwan Province Province, China: a part of the metatarsal bone of the pheasant's left foot, compared with the morphology of Landfowl, Blue-bellied Pheasant and Ring-necked Pheasant. The word "pheasant" mentioned in the references may have been associated with the "emperor pheasant" mentioned at the beginning. Yes, Emperor Pheasant is one of the representative species of pheasant in Taiwan Province Province, China. What's even more amazing is that there are 7 species of native pheasants in Taiwan Province Province, China, but more than half (4 species) of them are endemic! In other words, among the pheasant birds and dinosaurs in Taiwan Province Province, China, the proportion of endemic species is quite high, including: Emperor Pheasant, Blue-bellied Pheasant, China Taiwan Bamboo Chicken and China Taiwan Mountain Partridge (ring-necked Pheasant is recognized as an endemic subspecies in Taiwan Province Province, China, but it has not yet reached the status of "endemic species").

The male of Syrmaticus mikado. When naturalist Huang sees the exact fossil specimen, most people may need to keep their eyes open, because the preserved length is more than 2 cm and the width is only a little more than 1 cm. However, the width of the tarsus formed by the second, third and fourth pulleys may exceed one centimeter. In fact, it is a very large tarsometatarsal bone among birds and dinosaurs. Only pheasant species in Taiwan Province Province of China can reach this size: Emperor Pheasant, Blue-bellied Pheasant and Ring-necked Pheasant. In other words, the first bird dinosaur fossil in Taiwan Province Province, China, although incomplete, can almost miraculously be locked as a member of a large pheasant, such as an imperial chicken, a blue-bellied pheasant or a ring-necked pheasant.

The tarsometatarsal fossil is a starting point, and there is still a lot of evidence to be discovered in the future. The specimen looks incomplete, and the morphological identification seems to be limited, which may make many people disappointed with the first dinosaur fossil in Taiwan Province Province, China. However, from another perspective, this is the pleasure of engaging in research and exploring the unknown. The initial discovery seems unremarkable, but the breakthrough from zero to one actually has the opportunity to cause unlimited possibilities and greater research power in the future. Just like when/kloc-0 was discovered and named in 906, 186 1 year archaeopteryx had only one feather when it was first published. Or the first Mesozoic non-bird dinosaur with a formal scientific name in history can be traced back to 1763, and it is only a short section of the distal femur of the foot, which may be a bit indecent but unforgettable: human scrotum (scientific name: scrotum humanum)! At present, this scientific name has been replaced by Megalosaurus bucklandii (translated as buckland Dragon).

The equivalent model specimens of Papilio Papilio, including 1824 tooth bones selected by buckland, are located in the Natural History Museum of Oxford University. Crosscar, Wikimedia