Re: Caption translation for Yanornis

["Michael A. Turton" <turton@ev1.net>]

I see the end of it got cut off.  Here it is again:

Two important branches of birds existed in the Mesozoic. One was the
diverse 
and numerous [fan ya?-nithes] which were wiped out at the end of the
Cretaceous; 
the other were neornithes.  During the early Cretaceous they were less
numerous,
 and previously a complete specimen had not been found.  However,
Yanornis, 
most closely related to modern birds, is one of the two almost
completely 
preserved Liaoxi early Cretaceous fossil birds.  It is different from
Shizhu,
 Confuciornis, and other primitive birds, and belongs in neornithes. 
There 
are no obvious differences in its flight structures between Yanornis and 
modern birds.  Despite this, it preserves a number of primitive
features, 
for example, its upper and lower jaws have teeth, it has more developed 
claws, and so on.  This indicates that the nearest ancestor of modern
birds 
will be found in a later period.  Research in early Cretaceous
neornithes 
not only enables us to broaden our understanding of the radiation of
Mesozoic 
birds, but is also supremely important for our understanding of the
origins 
of modern birds.

Michael
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