Lower cretaceous avian-dominated, theropod, thyreophoran, pterosaur and turtle track assemblages from the Tugulu Group, Xinjiang, China: ichnotaxonomy and palaeoecology.

Rich tetrapod ichnofaunas, known for more than a decade, from the Huangyangquan Reservoir (Wuerhe District, Karamay City, Xinjiang) have been an abundant source of some of the largest Lower Cretaceous track collections from China. They originate from inland lacustrine clastic exposures of the 581-877 m thick Tugulu Group, variously divided into four formations and subgroups in the northwestern margin of the Junggar Basin. The large Huangyangquan track assemblages occur in the Lower layer/Subgroup II.

Overexpression of a MYB Family Gene, , Increases Drought and Salinity Stress Tolerance in Transgenic Rice.

MYB transcription factors have been demonstrated to play key regulatory roles in plant growth, development and abiotic stress response. However, knowledge concerning the involvement of rice genes in salinity and drought stress resistance are largely unknown. In the present study, we cloned and characterized the gene, which was induced by drought and salinity stress.

A Jurassic ceratosaur from China helps clarify avian digital homologies.

Theropods have traditionally been assumed to have lost manual digits from the lateral side inward, which differs from the bilateral reduction pattern seen in other tetrapod groups. This unusual reduction pattern is clearly present in basal theropods, and has also been inferred in non-avian tetanurans based on identification of their three digits as the medial ones of the hand (I-II-III). This contradicts the many developmental studies indicating II-III-IV identities for the three manual digits of the only extant tetanurans, the birds.

A basal tyrannosauroid dinosaur from the Late Jurassic of China.

The tyrannosauroid fossil record is mainly restricted to Cretaceous sediments of Laurasia, although some very fragmentary Jurassic specimens have been referred to this group. Here we report a new basal tyrannosauroid, Guanlong wucaii gen. et sp.

Basal tyrannosauroids from China and evidence for protofeathers in tyrannosauroids.

Tyrannosauroids are one of the last and the most successful large-bodied predatory dinosaur groups, but their early history remains poorly understood. Here we report a new basal tyrannosauroid from the Early Cretaceous Yixian Formation of western Liaoning, China, which is small and gracile and has relatively long arms with three-fingered hands. The new taxon is the earliest known unquestionable tyrannosauroid found so far.