In recent years, researchers have made several large scale field excavations in Zhaotong region, Yunnan Province. From the lignite units of Zhao- tong Formation, a large number of vertebrate fos- sils were obtained, among which the most majority of vertebrate fossils are avian, including 860 rela- tively complete individual skeletal elements. These materials represent 11 orders of 18 avian families. Along with other associated non-avian vertebrates, e. g. , fish, amphibian, reptile, as well as mammal (Primates, Proboscidea, Perissodactyla, Artiodac-tyla, Carnivora, Rodentia, and Lagomorpha), these fossil assemblage reveal an avian-dominated vertebrate fauna from southwestern China in Early Neogene (Latest Miocene).