The Jehol fossil. The emergence of feathered dinosaurs, beaked birds and flowering plants / Ископаемое Джехол. Появление пернатых динозавров, клювастых птиц и цветущих растений

Last decade has witnessed a renewed interest in the Jehol Biota both within the scientific community and among the general public
worldwide. The numerous research papers on the Jehol Biota, published in the prestigious journals such as Natllre and Science, have generated heated controversies among scientists and gained a widespread media frenzy. Here is a perfect example of Stephen J. Gould meeting Thomas S. Kuhn: a sudden "scientific revolution" has punctuated a long period of "normal science," with John Ostrom's revival of Thomas H. Huxley's theory of dinosaurian origin of birds as the new (or more precisely, renewed) paradigm. The discoveries of "feathered" dinosaurs in the Jehol Biota appear to have provided the direct evidence in support of the paradigm and therefore aroused public's intrigue in the notion of dinosaurs still being with us. Scientifically even more important is the Jehol Biota's well-preserved ancient biodiversity, which contains enormous amount of information on the paleoecosystem as well as many evolutionary issues. <...>