In a paper published in the latest issue of Vertebrata PalAsiatica, paleontologists described a new type of dinosaur eggs from the Lower Cretaceous Hekou Group in the Lanzhou-Minhe Basin, northwestern China, and established a new oogenus and a new oospecies, within a new oofamily. This finding has important implications for understanding the diversity and the geological and geographical distribution of Early Cretaceous dinosaur eggs in China, as well as the evolution of dinosaur eggshell structure.

Temnocyonine and haplocyonine amphicyonids (beardogs) are such an example that have been discovered both in Europend and North America, but remained absent in Asia. A newly discovered amphicyonid from the Early Miocene of central Nei Mongol, reported in the latest issue of Vertebrata PalAsiatica, filled in the long-expected Asian gap, offering new material for studies of Holarctic zoogeography.

In a paper published online Feburary 3 in the Journal of Systematic Palaeontology, Drs. WANG Min and ZHOU Zhonghe, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP), Chinese Academy of Sciences, described a new adult specimen of Archaeorhynchus spathula, the basal-most taxon of Ornithuromorpha, and compared the bone microstructure of this taxon to other Mesozoic and living birds. Their study reveals ontogenetic variations in early birds, providing important information regarding ontogeny for early ornithuromorphs.

A new species, Chongmingia zhengi, reported in the journal of Scientific Reports on 25 January 2016, sheds light on the early evolution of birds. Phylogenetic analyses indicate that it is basal to the dominant Mesozoic avian clades Enantiornithes and Ornithuromorpha, and represents a new basal avialan lineage. This new discovery adds to our knowledge regarding the phylogenetic differentiation and morphological diversity in early avian evolution.