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73-464: The museum is located in the northeast corner of the ruins of Sanxingdui , which is at the bank of Duck River in the west of Guanghan City, Sichuan Province , known as a famous historical and cultural city. It is 38 kilometers north from Chengdu and 26 kilometers south from Deyang . It is a large modern thematic museum. The foundation of the museum was laid in August 1992 and it was formally opened to

146-431: A monophyletic group, even after the removal of the distantly-related tropicbirds . Their relationships and delimitation – apart from being part of a "higher waterfowl" clade which is similar but not identical to Sibley and Ahlquist's "pan-Ciconiiformes" – remain mostly unresolved. Notwithstanding, all evidence agrees that the cormorants and shags are closer to the darters and Sulidae (gannets and boobies), and perhaps

219-417: A dead relative". The shi was generally a close, young relative who wore a costume (possibly including a mask) reproducing the features of the dead person. The shi was an impersonator, that is, a person serving as a reminder of the ancestor to whom sacrifice was being offered. During such a ceremony, the impersonator was much more than an actor in a drama. Although the exact meaning may have been different,

292-866: A patch of bare yellow skin at the base of the bill. Breeds in European Arctic, winters in Europe and North Africa. Maritime. Mid-sized (70–80 cm), glossy black, in breeding plumage with a forehead crest curled to the front. Throughout the Americas. Mostly freshwater. Smallish to large (65–100 cm), nondescript brownish-black. One species with white tufts on sides of head in breeding plumage. Generally Subantarctic, but extending farther north in South America; many oceanic-island endemics. Maritime. Smallish to largish (65–80 cm), typically black above, white below, and with bare yellow or red skin in

365-528: A walled city founded c.  1,600 BCE. The trapezoidal city has an east wall 2,000 m, south wall 2,000 m, west wall 1,600 m enclosing 3.6 km , similar in scale to the inner city of the Zhengzhou Shang City . The city was built on the banks of the Yazi River ( Chinese : 涧河 ; pinyin : Jiān Hé ), and enclosed part of its tributary, Mamu River, within

438-471: Is a nomen dubium and given its recent age probably not a separate genus. The remaining fossil species are not usually placed in a modern phylogenetic framework. While the numerous western US species are most likely prehistoric representatives of the coastal Urile or inland Nannopterum , the European fossils pose much more of a problem due to the singular common shag being intermediate in size between

511-485: Is a family of approximately 40 species of aquatic birds commonly known as cormorants and shags . Several different classifications of the family have been proposed, but in 2021 the International Ornithologists' Union (IOU) adopted a consensus taxonomy of seven genera . The great cormorant ( Phalacrocorax carbo ) and the common shag ( Gulosus aristotelis ) are the only two species of

584-411: Is along this axis that most of the pit burials have been found on four terraces. The structures were timber-framed adobe rectangular halls. The largest was a meeting hall about 200 m (2,200 sq ft). Evidence of an ancient culture in this region was first found in 1927 when a well-to-do farmer unearthed a large stash of jade relics while dredging an irrigation ditch, many of which through

657-466: Is an archaeological site and a major Bronze Age culture in modern Guanghan , Sichuan , China. Largely discovered in 1986, following a preliminary finding in 1927, archaeologists excavated artifacts that radiocarbon dating placed in the 12th-11th centuries BC. The archaeological site is the type site for the Sanxingdui culture that produced these artifacts, archeologists have identified

730-524: Is liable to result in some degree of convergent evolution and the bone is missing indisputable neornithine features, it is not entirely certain that the bone is correctly referred to this group. Phylogenetic evidence indicates that the cormorants diverged from their closest relatives, the darters, during the Late Oligocene, indicating that most of the claims of Cretaceous or early Paleogene cormorant occurrences are likely misidentifications. During

803-584: Is located 40 km away and has close link with the Sanxingdui culture. It is thought to be the relocated capital of the Shu Kingdom. It also has been suggested that the Jinsha site may be the hub and capital of the Duyu clan. The Sanxingdui archaeological site is located about 4 km northeast of Nanxing Township, Guanghan , Deyang , Sichuan Province. Archaeological digs at the site showed evidence of

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876-455: Is long, thin and hooked. Their feet have webbing between all four toes. All species are fish-eaters, catching the prey by diving from the surface. They are excellent divers, and under water they propel themselves with their feet with help from their wings; some cormorant species have been found to dive as deep as 45 metres (150 ft). They have relatively short wings due to their need for economical movement underwater, and consequently have among

949-515: Is not even clear how many species are involved. Provisionally, the fossil species are thus all placed in Phalacrocorax here: The former "Phalacrocorax" (or "Oligocorax" ) mediterraneus is now considered to belong to the bathornithid Paracrax antiqua . "P." subvolans was actually a darter ( Anhinga ). Humans have used cormorants' fishing skills in various places in the world. Archaeological evidence suggests that cormorant fishing

1022-674: Is not sufficient to properly resolve several groups to satisfaction; in addition, many species remain unsampled, the fossil record has not been integrated in the data, and the effects of hybridisation – known in some Pacific species especially – on the DNA sequence data are unstudied. A multigene molecular phylogenetic study published in 2014 provided a genus-level phylogeny of the family. Microcarbo – 5 species Poikilocarbo – red-legged cormorant Urile – 4 species Phalacrocorax – 12 species Gulosus – European shag Nannopterum – 3 species Leucocarbo – 16 species As per

1095-656: Is possible that southern Chinese personators wore these hypnotic bronze masks, recursively representing the spirit of a dead ancestor with a mask that represents a face disguised by a mask". Other bronze artifacts include birds with eagle-like bills, tigers, a large snake, zoomorphic masks, bells, and what appears to be a bronze spoked wheel but is more likely to be decoration from an ancient shield. Apart from bronze, Sanxingdui finds included jade artifacts consistent with earlier neolithic cultures in China, such as cong and zhang . As far back as Neolithic times, East Asians identified

1168-824: Is specially used to exhibit bronze. According to the South China Morning Post, Sanxingdui Museum opened a new building in 2023, displaying nearly 600 relics for the first time, with its preliminary opening in July 2023. A total of more than 1,500 pieces or sets of relics, including pottery, bronze, jade and gold wares are showcased in the new building. In 2019 the museum received almost 964,000 visitors and earned revenue of nearly 40 million yuan. Sanxingdui 30°59′35″N 104°12′00″E  /  30.993°N 104.200°E  / 30.993; 104.200 Sanxingdui ( Chinese : 三星堆 ; pinyin : Sānxīngduī ; lit. 'Three Star Mound ')

1241-657: Is the Cornish name of the sea giant in the tale of Jack the Giant Killer . Indeed, "sea raven" or analogous terms were the usual terms for cormorants in Germanic languages until after the Middle Ages . The French explorer André Thévet commented in 1558: "the beak [is] similar to that of a cormorant or other corvid", which demonstrates that the erroneous belief that the birds were related to ravens lasted at least to

1314-551: The Clements Checklist , formerly recognised only Microcarbo as a separate genus from Phalacrocorax . For details, see the article " List of cormorant species ". The details of the evolution of the cormorants are mostly unknown. Even the technique of using the distribution and relationships of a species to figure out where it came from, biogeography, usually very informative, does not give very specific data for this probably rather ancient and widespread group. However,

1387-791: The IOU , the IUCN Red List and BirdLife International , the family contains 7 genera: Around Indian Ocean, one species extending from Central Asia into Europe. Mostly in freshwater habitat. Small (about 50–60 cm long), nondescript black to dark brown (except for one species with white underparts). Subtropical to subantarctic Pacific South America, ranging a bit into the southwestern Atlantic. Maritime. Mid-sized (around 75 cm), grey with scalloped wings and contrasting white/yellow/red neck mark and bare parts. Its high-pitched chirping calls are quite unlike those of other cormorants. Northern Pacific, one species extending into subtropical waters on

1460-525: The Jin dynasty (266–420) , the Shu kingdom was founded by Cancong ( 蠶 叢 ). Cancong was described as having protruding eyes, a feature that is found in many of the masks and figures of Sanxingdui. It has therefore been suggested that the large masks with protruding eyes are a representation of Cancong, although there are other interpretations. Other eye-shaped objects were also found that might suggest worship of

1533-676: The Olympic Museum in Lausanne (1993). Nevertheless, despite the interest in the excavated finds, the site suffered from flooding and pollution . For this reason the site was included in the 1996 World Monuments Watch by the World Monuments Fund . For the preservation of the site, funding was offered by American Express to construct a protective dike. Also, in 1997, the Sanxingdui Museum opened near

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1606-575: The Quercy Phosphorites of Quercy (France), dating to some time between the Late Eocene and the mid- Oligocene . All these early European species might belong to the basal group of "microcormorants", as they conform with them in size and seem to have inhabited the same habitat: subtropical coastal or inland waters. While this need not be more than convergence , the phylogeny of the modern (sub)genus Microcarbo – namely, whether

1679-590: The 16th century. No consistent distinction exists between cormorants and shags. The names "cormorant" and "shag" were originally the common names of the two species of the family found in Great Britain  – Phalacrocorax carbo (now referred to by ornithologists as the great cormorant ) and Gulosus aristotelis (the European shag ). "Shag" refers to the bird's crest, which the British forms of

1752-612: The American West Coast. Maritime. Smallish to large (65–100 cm), generally black with metallic sheen (usually blue/green), in breeding plumage with bright bare facial skin in the eye region and two crests (crown and nape). Mostly around Indian Ocean, one species group extending throughout Eurasia and to Atlantic North America. Maritime to freshwater. Size very variable (60–100 cm), blackish with metallic sheen (usually bronze to purple) and/or white cheek and thigh patches or underside at least in breeding plumage; usually

1825-564: The Early Oligocene, perhaps some 30 million years ago, and that the Cretaceous fossils represent ancestral sulids, "pelecaniforms" or "higher waterbirds"; at least the last lineage is generally believed to have been already distinct and undergoing evolutionary radiation at the end of the Cretaceous . What can be said with near certainty is that AMNH FR 25272 is from a diving bird that used its feet for underwater locomotion; as this

1898-637: The North American ones placed in the expanded Phalacrocorax ; the latter might just as well be included in Nannopterum . A Late Oligocene fossil cormorant foot from Enspel , Germany, sometimes placed in Oligocorax , would then be referable to Nectornis if it proves not to be too distinct. Limicorallus , meanwhile, was initially believed to be a rail or a dabbling duck by some. There are also undescribed remains of apparent cormorants from

1971-587: The Phalacrocoracidae; this was from a rather smaller bird, about the size of a long-tailed cormorant . However, cormorants likely originated much later, and these are likely misidentifications. As the Early Oligocene "Sula" ronzoni cannot be assigned to any of the sulid families—cormorants and shags, darters, and gannets and boobies—with certainty, the best interpretation is that the Phalacrocoracidae diverged from their closest ancestors in

2044-631: The Western Eurasian M. pygmaeus is a basal or highly derived member of its clade – is still not well understood at all as of 2022. Some other Paleogene remains are sometimes assigned to the Phalacrocoracidae, but these birds seem rather intermediate between cormorants and darters (and lack clear autapomorphies of either). Thus, they may be quite basal members of the Palacrocoracoidea . The taxa in question are: The supposed Late Pliocene/Early Pleistocene " Valenticarbo "

2117-698: The artifacts found at the site to its early and legendary kings. References to a Shu kingdom that may be dated reliably to such an early period in Chinese historical records are scant. The kingdom is mentioned in Shiji and Shujing as an ally of the Zhou who defeated the Shang. Accounts of the legendary kings of Shu also may be found in local annals. According to the Chronicles of Huayang that were compiled during

2190-464: The available evidence suggests that there has also been a great deal of convergent evolution ; for example the cliff shags are a convergent paraphyletic group. The proposed division into Phalacrocorax sensu stricto (or subfamily "Phalacrocoracinae") cormorants and Leucocarbo sensu lato (or "Leucocarboninae") shags does have some degree of merit. The resolution provided by the mtDNA 12S rRNA and ATPase subunits six and eight sequence data

2263-463: The birds to fish. In a common technique, a snare is tied near the base of the bird's throat, which allows the bird only to swallow small fish. When the bird captures and tries to swallow a large fish, the fish is caught in the bird's throat. When the bird returns to the fisherman's raft, the fisherman helps the bird to remove the fish from its throat. The method is not as common today, since more efficient methods of catching fish have been developed, but

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2336-464: The breeding season. The bill is long, thin, and sharply hooked. Their feet have webbing between all four toes, as in their relatives. Habitat varies from species to species: some are restricted to seacoasts, while others occur in both coastal and inland waters to varying degrees. They range around the world, except for the central Pacific islands. All cormorants and shags are fish-eaters, dining on small eels , fish, and even water snakes. They dive from

2409-495: The city of Inuyama , Aichi . In Guilin , Guangxi , cormorants are famous for fishing on the shallow Li River . In Gifu, the Japanese cormorant ( P. capillatus ) is used; Chinese fishermen often employ great cormorants ( P. carbo ). In Europe, a similar practice was also used on Doiran Lake in the region of Macedonia . James VI and I appointed a keeper of cormorants, John Wood , and built ponds at Westminster to train

2482-419: The city walls. The city walls were 40 m at the base and 20 m at the top, varying in height from 8–10 m. There was a smaller set of inner walls. The walls were surrounded by canals 25–20 m wide and 2–3 m deep. These canals were used for irrigation, inland navigation, defense, and flood control. The city was divided into residential, industrial, and religious districts organized around a dominant central axis. It

2555-554: The closest living relatives of the cormorants and shags are the other families of the suborder Sulae — darters and gannets and boobies —which have a primarily Gondwanan distribution. Hence, at least the modern diversity of Sulae probably originated in the southern hemisphere. While the Leucocarbonines are almost certainly of southern Pacific origin—possibly even the Antarctic which, at the time when cormorants evolved,

2628-663: The creamy white patch on the cheeks of adult great cormorants , or the ornamental white head plumes prominent in Mediterranean birds of this species, but is certainly not a unifying characteristic of cormorants. The cormorant family are a group traditionally placed within the Pelecaniformes or, in the Sibley–Ahlquist taxonomy of the 1990s, the expanded Ciconiiformes . Pelecaniformes in the traditional sense—all waterbird groups with totipalmate foot webbing—are not

2701-522: The disproportionately large eyes and eyebrows, and vermillion on the lips, nostrils, and ear holes. According to the French sinologist Corinne Debaine-Francfort , these colours provide evidence for ritual practices that were very different from those of the Shang dynasty . Vermillion is interpreted "not be coloring but something ritually offered for the head to taste, smell, and hear (or something that gave it

2774-407: The end of the Sanxingdui culture includes that it might have been the result of natural disasters (evidence of massive flooding and an earthquake were found), or invasion by another culture. The culture was governed by a strong central theocracy with trade links to bronze from Yin and ivory from Southeast Asia . This ancient culture had a well developed bronze casting industry that permitted

2847-498: The eyes. Other rulers mentioned in Chronicles of Huayang include Boguan ( 柏 灌 ), Yufu ( 魚 鳧 ), and Duyu ( 杜 宇 ). Many of the objects are fish- and bird-shaped, and these have been suggested to be totems of Boguan and Yufu (the name Yufu means fish cormorant ), and the clan of Yufu has been suggested as the one most likely to be associated with Sanxingdui. Later, similar discoveries were made at Jinsha as well, which

2920-544: The facial region. A circumpolar group of several species (the blue-eyed shag complex) is characterised by bright blue orbital skin. Prior to 2021, the IOU (or formerly the IOC) classified all these species in just three genera: Microcarbo , Leucocarbo , and a broad Phalacrocorax containing all remaining species; however, this treatment rendered Phalacrocorax deeply paraphyletic with respect to Leucocarbo . Other authorities, such as

2993-459: The family commonly encountered in Britain and Ireland and "cormorant" and "shag" appellations have been later assigned to different species in the family somewhat haphazardly. Cormorants and shags are medium-to-large birds, with body weight in the range of 0.35–5 kilograms (0.77–11.02 lb) and wing span of 60–100 centimetres (24–39 in). The majority of species have dark feathers. The bill

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3066-535: The family into two genera and attach the name "cormorant" to one and "shag" to the other, but this nomenclature has not been widely adopted. Cormorants and shags are medium-to-large seabirds . They range in size from the pygmy cormorant ( Microcarbo pygmaeus ), at as little as 45 cm (18 in) and 340 g (12 oz), to the flightless cormorant ( Nannopterum harrisi ), at a maximum size 100 cm (39 in) and 5 kg (11 lb). The recently extinct spectacled cormorant ( Urile perspicillatus )

3139-410: The finds at Sanxingdui, the bronzes might represent the universe. It is unclear whether they formed part of ritual events designed to communicate with the spirits of the universe (or ancestral spirits). As no written records remain it is difficult to determine the intended uses of objects found. Some believe that the continued prevalence of depictions of these animals, especially in the later Han period,

3212-629: The four quadrants of the sky with animals: Azure Dragon of the East , Vermilion Bird of the South , White Tiger of the West , and Black Tortoise of the North . Each of these Four Symbols (Chinese constellation) was associated with a constellation that was visible in the relevant season: the dragon in the spring, the bird in the summer, etc. Since these four animals—birds, dragons, snakes, and tigers—predominate

3285-596: The great cormorant lack. As other species were encountered by English-speaking sailors and explorers elsewhere in the world, some were called cormorants and some shags, sometimes depending on whether they had crests or not. Sometimes the same species is called a cormorant in one part of the world and a shag in another; for example, all species in the family which occur in New Zealand are known locally as shags, including four non-endemic species known as cormorant elsewhere in their range. Van Tets (1976) proposed to divide

3358-542: The group of Sanxingdui masked figures in bronze all have the character of an impersonator. It is likely the masks were used to impersonate and identify with certain supernatural beings in order to effect some communal good. Another scholar compares these "bulging-eyed, big-eared, bronze heads and masks" with "eye-idols" (effigies with large eyes and open mouths designed to induce hallucinations) in Julian Jaynes 's bicameral mentality hypothesis; and proposes, "[i]t

3431-451: The highest flight costs of any flying bird. Cormorants nest in colonies around the shore, on trees, islets or cliffs. They are coastal rather than oceanic birds, and some have colonised inland waters. The original ancestor of cormorants seems to have been a fresh-water bird. They range around the world, except for the central Pacific islands. "Cormorant" is a contraction probably derived from Latin corvus marinus , "sea raven". Cormoran

3504-474: The late Paleogene, when the family presumably originated, much of Eurasia was covered by shallow seas, as the Indian Plate finally attached to the mainland. Lacking a detailed study, it may well be that the first "modern" cormorants were small species from eastern, south-eastern or southern Asia, possibly living in freshwater habitat, that dispersed due to tectonic events. Such a scenario would account for

3577-403: The layer of air next to the skin. The wing drying action is seen even in the flightless cormorant but not in the Antarctic shags or red-legged cormorants. Alternate functions suggested for the spread-wing posture include that it aids thermoregulation or digestion, balances the bird, or indicates presence of fish. A detailed study of the great cormorant concludes that it is without doubt to dry

3650-572: The locale with the ancient kingdom of Shu . The artifacts are displayed in the Sanxingdui Museum located near the city of Guanghan. Sanxingdui is on the UNESCO list of tentative World Heritage Sites , along with the Jinsha site and the tombs of boat-shaped coffins . Many Chinese archaeologists have identified the Sanxingdui culture to be part of the ancient kingdom of Shu , linking

3723-522: The location and photographed and measured the site. Through the magistrate, a few items were acquired and sent to the museum at WCUU. Then, in 1934, David Crockett Graham , the new director of the museum at WCUU, organised the first archaeological excavation of the site. In 1986, local workers accidentally found sacrificial pits containing thousands of gold, bronze, jade, and pottery artifacts that had been broken (perhaps ritually disfigured), burned, and carefully buried. Containing approximately 800 objects,

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3796-830: The manufacture of many impressive articles, such as the world's oldest life-size standing human statue (260 cm high, 180 kg) , and a bronze tree with birds, flowers, and ornaments (396 cm), which some have identified as renderings of the Fusang tree of Chinese mythology. The dawn redwood also may be found relatively near on the eastern fringe of the Sichuan Basin . The most striking finds were dozens of large bronze masks and heads (at least six heads with gold foil masks originally attached) represented with angular human features, exaggerated almond-shaped eyes, some with protruding pupils, and large upper ears. Many Sanxingdui bronze faces had traces of paint smears: black on

3869-460: The most extreme case be reduced to the great , white-breasted and Japanese cormorants . In 2014, a landmark study proposed a 7 genera treatment, which was adopted by the IUCN Red List and BirdLife International , and later by the IOC in 2021, standardizing it. The cormorants and the darters have a unique bone on the back of the top of the skull known as the os nuchale or occipital style which

3942-592: The original site. In March 2021, more than 500 cultural relics, including a 3,000-year-old gold mask, were discovered at Sanxingdui at a 4.6-square-mile area outside the provincial capital of Chengdu. The mask is estimated to be made from 84% gold and weighs 280 grams (0.6 pounds). According to the National Cultural Heritage Administration , the items were recovered from six newly discovered "sacrificial pits". Additional masks, jade tools, and ivory relics were also discovered in

4015-563: The other two European cormorant lineages, and as of 2022 still of mysterious ancestry ; notably, a presumably lost collection of Late Miocene fossils from the Odesa region may have contained remains of all three (sub)genera inhabiting Europe today. Similarly, the Plio-Pleistocene fossils from Florida have been allied with Nannopterum and even Urile , but may conceivably be Phalacrocorax ; they are in serious need of revision since it

4088-468: The pelicans or even penguins , than to all other living birds. In recent years, three preferred treatments of the cormorant family have emerged: either to leave all living cormorants in a single genus, Phalacrocorax , or to split off a few species such as the imperial shag complex (in Leucocarbo ) and perhaps the flightless cormorant . Alternatively, the genus may be disassembled altogether and in

4161-558: The pit. The six pits were discovered at the Sanxingdui site between 2020 and 2022 during a renewed slate of excavations. The artifacts found in these excavations include fragments of a gold mask, traces of silk, bronze ware depicting animals, ivory carvings, and more. A round of excavations is scheduled to conclude in October 2022. The timeline of the culture of the Sanxingdui site is thought to be divided into several phases. The Sanxingdui culture that corresponds to periods II - III of

4234-427: The plumage. Cormorants are colonial nesters, using trees, rocky islets, or cliffs. The eggs are a chalky-blue colour. There is usually one brood a year. Parents regurgitate food to feed their young. The genus Phalacrocorax , from which the family name Phalacrocoracidae is derived, is Latinised from Ancient Greek φαλακρός phalakros "bald" and κόραξ korax "raven". This is often thought to refer to

4307-474: The power to breathe, hear, and speak)". Based upon the design of these heads, archaeologists believe they were mounted on wooden supports or totems , perhaps dressed in clothing. Liu Yang concludes "masked ritual played a vital role in community life of the ancient Sanxingdui inhabitants", and he characterizes these bronze ritual masks as something that may have been worn by a shi ( 尸 ; 'corpse') "personator, impersonator; ceremonial representative of

4380-502: The present-day distribution of cormorants and shags and is not contradicted by the fossil record; as remarked above, a thorough review of the problem is not yet available. Even when Phalacrocorax was used to unite all living species, two distinct genera of prehistoric cormorants became widely accepted today: The proposed genus Oligocorax appears to be paraphyletic – the European species have been separated in Nectornis , and

4453-555: The public in October 1997. Sanxingdui Museum currently covers an area of about 33 hectares of which the afforested area is over 80%. There are two exhibition halls in the museum, including the First Exhibition Hall and the Second Exhibition Hall. The display area is nearly 12,000 square meters. The First Exhibition Hall exhibits gold, copper, jade, stone, pottery, etc. while the Second Exhibition Hall

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4526-434: The sea floor. After fishing, cormorants go ashore, and are frequently seen holding their wings out in the sun. All cormorants have preen gland secretions that are used ostensibly to keep the feathers waterproof. Some sources state that cormorants have waterproof feathers while others say that they have water- permeable feathers. Still others suggest that the outer plumage absorbs water but does not permit it to penetrate

4599-489: The second sacrificial pit was found a little less than a month later, on August 14, 1986, only 20–30 meters from the first one. Bronze objects found in the second sacrificial pit included sculptures of humans, animal-faced sculptures, bells, decorative animals such as dragons, snakes, chicks, and birds, and axes. Tables, masks, and belts were some of the objects found that were made out of gold, while objects made out of jade included axes, tablets, rings, knives, and tubes. There

4672-462: The site, was a mysterious civilization in southern China. This culture is contemporaneous with the Shang dynasty , however, that culture developed a different method of bronze-making from the Shang. The first phase that corresponds to period I of the site belongs to the Baodun , and the final phase (period IV ) the culture was succeeded by the state of Ba and kingdom of Shu . Speculation regarding

4745-458: The surface, though many species make a characteristic half-jump as they dive, presumably to give themselves a more streamlined entry into the water. Under water they propel themselves with their feet, though some also propel themselves with their wings (see the picture, commentary, and existing reference video ). Imperial shags fitted with miniaturized video recorders have been filmed diving to depths of as much as 80 metres (260 ft) to forage on

4818-479: The years found their way into the hands of private collectors. In 1931, the discovery was brought to the attention of Vyvyan Donnithorne , an Anglican missionary stationed at the Gospel Church of Guanghan . He recognised the importance of the discovery and contacted a local magistrate as well as Daniel Sheets Dye , a professor of geology at West China Union University (WCUU). The three of them then visited

4891-720: Was also a large number of ivory and clam shells. Researchers were astonished to find an artistic style that was completely unknown in the history of Chinese art . Among the Sanxingdui discoveries, the bronze artifacts garnered exceptional scholarly attention. Task Rosen , chief archaeological expert from the British Museum , considered them to be more outstanding than the Terracotta Army in Xi'an . The first exhibits of Sanxingdui bronzes were held in Beijing (1987, 1990) and

4964-1155: Was an attempt by humans to "fit into" their understanding of their world, their cosmology . (The jades that were found at Sanxingdui also seem to correlate with the six known types of ritual jades of ancient China, again each might be associated with a compass point (N, S, E, W) plus the heavens and earth.) Cormorant Microcarbo Poikilocarbo Urile Phalacrocorax Gulosus Nannopterum Leucocarbo Australocorax Lambrecht , 1931 Compsohalieus B. Brewer & Ridgway , 1884 Cormoranus Baillon , 1834 Dilophalieus Coues , 1903 Ecmeles Gistel, 1848 Euleucocarbo Voisin, 1973 Halietor Heine, 1860 Hydrocorax Vieillot , 1819 ( non Brisson, 1760: preoccupied ) Hypoleucus Reichenbach , 1852 Miocorax Lambrecht, 1933 Nesocarbo Voisin, 1973 Notocarbo Siegel-Causey, 1988 Pallasicarbo Coues, 1903 Paracorax Lambrecht, 1933 Pliocarbo Tugarinov , 1940 Stictocarbo Bonaparte, 1855 Viguacarbo Coues, 1903 Anatocarbo Nanocorax (see text) Phalacrocoracidae

5037-404: Was called a xiphoid process in early literature. This bony projection provides anchorage for the muscles that increase the force with which the lower mandible is closed. This bone and the highly developed muscles over it, the M. adductor mandibulae caput nuchale, are unique to the families Phalacrocoracidae and Anhingidae. Several evolutionary groups are still recognizable. However, combining

5110-635: Was found in the Nemegt Formation in Mongolia; it is now in the PIN collection. It is from a bird roughly the size of a spectacled cormorant, and quite similar to the corresponding bone in Phalacrocorax . A Maastrichtian (Late Cretaceous, c. 66 mya) right femur , AMNH FR 25272 from the Lance Formation near Lance Creek, Wyoming , is sometimes suggested to be the second-oldest record of

5183-688: Was not yet ice-covered—all that can be said about the Phalacrocoracines is that they are most diverse in the regions bordering the Indian Ocean, but generally occur over a large area. Similarly, the origin of the family is shrouded in uncertainties. Some Late Cretaceous fossils have been proposed to belong with the Phalacrocoracidae: A scapula from the Campanian - Maastrichtian boundary, about 70 mya (million years ago),

5256-581: Was practised in Ancient Egypt, Peru, Korea and India, but the strongest tradition has remained in China and Japan, where it reached commercial-scale level in some areas. In Japan, cormorant fishing is called ukai ( 鵜飼 ) and is performed by a fisherman known as an usho. Traditional forms of ukai can be seen on the Nagara River in the city of Gifu , Gifu Prefecture , where cormorant fishing has continued uninterrupted for 1300 years, or in

5329-470: Was rather larger, at an average size of 6.3 kg (14 lb). The majority, including nearly all Northern Hemisphere species, have mainly dark plumage , but some Southern Hemisphere species are black and white, and a few (e.g. the spotted shag of New Zealand) are quite colourful. Many species have areas of coloured skin on the face (the lores and the gular skin ) which can be bright blue, orange, red or yellow, typically becoming more brightly coloured in

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