China Hosts Int'l Meeting on Avian PaleontologyThe Fifth International Meeting of the Society of Avian Paleontology and Evolution and the Symposium on Jehol Biota started this morning in Beijing.At the four-day meeting, organized by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP), 70 foreign and 80Chinese paleontologists are to discuss the hottest issues in paleontology. The general program of the meeting consists of oral presentations of the latest findings and progress in research, and a symposium and round-table discussion on the origin and early evolution of birds are also planned, said Zhou Zhonghe, secretary- general of the meeting's organizing committee. According to Zhou, possible discussion topics also include the relationship between Confuciusornis and enantiornithines, dinosaurs and birds, the nature of the "feather" or "fiber-like" filaments in Sinosauropteryx, and the relationship between the origin of birds and origin of flight. Participants also will elect the society's first executive committee, Zhou said. In the past decade, archaeologists have found huge reserves of ancient animal fossils in northeast China's Liaoning and north China's Hebei provinces, to the astonishment of scientists around the world. The Society of Avian Paleontology and Evolution convenes its international meeting once every four years. The previous four meetings were hosted by France, the United States, and Germany. |
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