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Jehol Bird and Arils

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The long-tailed bird Jeholornis prima perches on the stump of a tree fern to feed on yew cones for their berry-like arils. Fossils of this bird from the Chinese Juifotang Formation preserve numerous seeds of indeterminate species in its crop, proving it was a frugivore or granivore. While its poor flying ability probably meant it normally foraged on the ground, it could certainly have climbed or flapped clumsily from a tree to reach a bit higher and access some untouched food sources.

Fruit, grain, and insects are a prime source of carotenoid pigment, and frugivorous birds often display flares of color like bright red and yellow (or even green if iridescence is also present) not seen in their drabber carnivorous or piscivorous relatives.
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CartoonBen's avatar
:) (Smile) You know, I had no idea Jeholornis's real name was Shenzhouraptor. Thanks for letting me know. By the way, as an author, illustrator, and writer (who doesn't always do the writing on his own), I was thinking of making a fairy tale based book involving this particular species of ancient bird playing the role of Jack in my version of "Jack and the Beanstalk". Except instead of a beanstalk it would be a land bridge made of Cretaceous vegetation of some kind. I'll look it up later and find out what kind I'll use. So far, I made and published Little Red Flying Hood (loosely based on "Little Red Riding Hood") and now I am in development of another book based on "The Three Bears" (which will take place on the same continent and country as the Jeholornis or Shenzhouraptor's environment. Except this one will take place in ancient China in a universe where anthropomorphic animals roam the earth together and most of the predatory mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians chose to eat fish and invertebrates instead of other animals outside of the families of their preferred diet). The Bengal tigers who will be playing the role of the three bears (with two panda cubs playing Goldilocks' role) are born of Hindu descent and have moved to China, away from their home in India and prefer to hunt for fish from the Yangtze River instead of pigs, deer, and/or game birds. In fact, I even learned that people of Hindu religion in the Bengal region of India prefer to fish instead of cultivating meat from cows, because like all people of Hindu religion, they worship cows and other species of livestock that I can remember besides elephants, monkeys, snakes, vultures, and rats.