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Abstract
Fieldwork in the Early Cretaceous Jehol Group, northeastern China has revealed a plethora
of extraordinarily well-preserved fossils that are shaping some of the most contentious
debates in palaeontology and evolutionary biology. These discoveries include feathered
theropod dinosaurs and early birds, which provide additional, indisputable support
for the dinosaurian ancestry of birds, and much new evidence on the evolution of feathers
and flight. Specimens of putative basal angiosperms and primitive mammals are clarifying
details of the early radiations of these major clades. Detailed soft-tissue preservation
of the organisms from the Jehol Biota is providing palaeobiological insights that
would not normally be accessible from the fossil record.