In a new study published Jan 30 in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, a team of researchers from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP), Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Lingyi University in Shandong, has shown that a previously described specimen of Hongshanornis longicresta from the Shandong Tianyu Museum of Nature is actually a new species, which they name Eogranivora edentulata. This new species is a basal member of the Ornithuromorpha, helping to clarify trophic driven patterns of tooth loss within the Ornithuromorpha, and its apparent loss of the hallux may represent the first such occurrence in a Mesozoic bird and suggests a highly terrestrial lifestyle.

Dr. WANG Xiaolin, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), and his team reported on hundreds of three-dimensional (3D) pterosaur eggs of the species Hamipterus tianshanensis from a Lower Cretaceous site in the Turpan-Hami Basin, 16 of which contain embryonic remains, allowing for an unexpected look at the embryology and reproductive strategy of these flying reptiles. Their study was published online 30 November in Science.

The biological makeup of humans in East Asia is shaping up to be a very complex story, with greater diversity and more distant contacts than previously known, according to a new study in Current Biology analyzing the genome of a man that died in the Tianyuan Cave near Beijing, China 40,000 years ago. His bones had enough DNA molecules left that a team led by Professor FU Qiaomei, at the Molecular Paleontology Lab at the Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology （IVPP）, could use advanced ancient DNA sequencing techniques to retrieve DNA from him that spans the human genome. Though several ancient humans have been sequenced in Europe and Siberia, few have been sequenced from East Asia, particularly China, where the archaeological record shows a rich history for early modern humans. This new study on the Tianyuan man marks the earliest ancient DNA from East Asia, and the first ancient genome-wide data from China.