plants, including mosses, clubmosses, horsetails, ferns, seed ferns, Czekanowskiales, ginkgo trees, cycadeoids, Gnetales, conifers, and a small number of flowering plants. Fauna that were present in the Jehol Biota include ostracods, gastropods, bivalves, insects, fish, salamanders, mammals, lizards, choristoderes, pterosaurs, and dinosaurs (including birds). These fossils are exceptionally well preserved, with dinosaur fossils frequently preserving filaments and feather impressions and sometimes even pigmentation, such as in Microraptor (an aerial predator of the Jiufotang Formation), Psittacosaurus (a small ceratopsian with a wide distribution throughout both formations), and Sinosauropteryx (a compsognathid and one of the first dinosaurs recovered from the Yixian). Other feathered dinosaurs of the Jehol Biota include the large compsognathid Sinocalliopteryx gigas, a specimen of which was discovered with Confuciusornis bones in its abdominal contents, the small herbivorous oviraptorosaur Caudipteryx, and the large tyrannosauroid Yutyrannus, all from the Yixian Formation. Jehol birds are represented by more than 20 genera, including basal avialans (such as Confucisornis, Jeholornis, and Sapeornis), more derived enantiornithes (such as Eoenantiornis, Longirostravis, Sinornis, Boluochia, and Longipteryx), and even further derived ornithurines (such as Liaoningornis, Yixianornis, and Yanornis). References External links Well preserved fossil attributed to Confuciusornis from the Jiufotang Formation Confuciusornithids Feathered dinosaurs Transitional fossils Aptian life Early Cretaceous birds of Asia Cretaceous China Fossils of China Yixian fauna Jiufotang fauna Fossil taxa described in 1995 Taxa named by Zhou Zhonghe