On Some Examples of Missing Links — Perspectives from Fossil Evidence in China

摘要

Significant progress has been made in the discovery of fossil evidence of missing links since Darwin published his book On the Origin of Species. Among the most remarkable recently found in China are the earliest vertebrates from the Early Cambrian, the oldest and most primitive turtle from the Middle Triassic, four-winged dinosaurs that are among the closest relatives to birds from the Mid-dle Jurassic to Early Cretaceous, and some of the most basal birds from the Early Cretaceous. These fossils represent some of the major steps in vertebrate evolution and show some key anatomical transitions. Despite the general impression of the incompleteness of fossil records, our knowledge of biological evolutionary history has been greatly enriched. Thanks to the significant progress in stud-ies of paleontology, geochronology, and the molecular timescale, our understanding of the evolution of life on earth is now probably much better than anyone could have imagined several decades ago.