In order to investigate when and how the birth of a protostellar core occurs,
we made survey observations of four well-studied dense cores in the Taurus
molecular cloud using CO transitions in submillimeter bands. We report here the
detection of unexpectedly warm (~ 30 - 70 K), extended (radius of ~ 2400 AU),
dense (a few times 10^{5} cm^{-3}) gas at the heart of one of the dense cores,
L1521F (MC27), within the cold dynamically collapsing components. We argue that
the detected warm, extended, dense gas may originate from shock regions caused
by collisions between the dynamically collapsing components and
outflowing/rotating components within the dense core. We propose a new stage of
star formation, "warm-in-cold core stage (WICCS)", i.e., the cold collapsing
envelope encases the warm extended dense gas at the center due to the formation
of a protostellar core. WICCS would constitutes a missing link in evolution
between a cold quiescent starless core and a young protostar in class 0 stage
that has a large-scale bipolar outflow.