Jurassic Fossil Restores Archaeopteryx As Ancient Bird

An international team of researchers has discovered the complete skeleton of a new bird-like dinosaur in northeast China.

AsianScientist (May 30, 2013) – An international team of researchers has discovered the complete skeleton of a new bird-like dinosaur in northeast China.

The fossil had well-preserved features and was recovered from the Tiaojishan Formation of Liaoning Province, China.

Discoveries of feathered theropod dinosaurs in northeastern China over the past two decades have challenged the pivotal position of Archaeopteryx as the archetypical bird-like dinosaur, and our ideas of the evolution of birds and the origins of flight.

Their discovery, reported this week in Nature, revises previous ideas of the evolution of birds and the origins of flight.

Phylogenetic analysis of this dinosaur and comparison to other avialans confirms that the new dinosaur and Archaeopteryx are both avialans, and that Archaeopteryx represents one of the earliest points of divergence within the avialans.

The work also clarifies the classification and branching of other Jurassic and Cretaceous bird-like dinosaurs.

It places another family of bird-like theropod dinosaurs — Troodontidae — as a sister group to the avialans. The discovery reorganizes a series of successively branching Middle–Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous avialan forms that diverge earlier than Archaeopteryx.

The article can be found at: Godefroit P et al. (2013) A Jurassic avialan dinosaur from China resolves the early phylogenetic history of birds.

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Source: NPG; Photo: IRSNB.
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