Cretaceous age for the feathered dinosaurs of Liaoning, China

The ancient lake beds of the lower part of the Yixian Formation, Liaoning Province, northeastern China, have yielded a wide rangeof well-preserved fossils: the ‘feathered’ dinosaurs Sinosauropteryx1, Protarchaeopteryx and Caudipteryx2, the primitive birds Confuciusornis3 and Liaoningornis4, the mammal Zhangheotherium5 and the reportedly oldest flowering plant, Archaefructus6. Equally well preserved in the lake beds are a wide range of fossil...