A recent fossil finding fills a breach of obvious prehistoric birds. The Jurassic period affirms Archeptérix (Sometimes called Dinosaur Adeinonychosaurian), which, despite its feathered wings, seem more dinosaurs. Meanwhile, most Avian parents of the Cretaceous seem more similar to birds, with short tails that end in a compound bone called Pigostilo.
A team from the Chinese Academy of Sciences report In the newspaper Nature He found a specimen that adjusts between those proto birds. This finding suggests that the creatures that we know as birds, or at least winged creatures that were more birds than Dino, emerged 20 million years before what was thought.
Early fossil discovery
The team, led by Wang Min, discovered two bird fossils in rocks of the Jurassic era in southeastern China. Because the rocks in which fossils were locked dating from 149 million years, fossils show that birds began to diversify away from dinosaurs at the end of the Jurassic period.
It can be difficult to identify where, when, why and how birds began to differentiate. Bird fossils, or birds, of the Jurassic period are relatively rare already incomplete.
Despite the feathered wings of Archeopteryx, non -avialan dinosaurs looked a lot, especially due to its long reptilian tail, which separates it from the cretaceous and more modern birds.
Read more: One of the first birds never discovered has rare legs and similar to the stork.
Different classification
Some paleontologists have questioned whether Archaeopteryx should be considered a bird at all, classifying it as a Dinonychosaurian dinosaur, a brother group of birds that are still considered more as a dinosaur. This reclassification caused some paleontologists to wonder if there are real Jurassic birds.
The new findings answer that question with a resonant yes.
One of the two fossils, to those who named Baminornis zhenghensisHe has a bird -shaped shoulder and pelvic strips. It also has a short tail. That characteristic connects it solidly to contemporary birds, because the tail ends with a compound pgostyl. Although a hand -shaped structure still connects it to Dinos, the other characteristics make it more bird than reptile.
Rewriting the album
This finding rewrites the evolutionary history of birds. “Previously, the oldest record of short -tailed birds is early Cretaceous,” Wang said in a Press release. “Baminornis zhenghensis is the only Jurassic and the oldest short -tailed bird so far, which goes back the appearance of this bird feature derived from almost 20 million years.”
The second fossil is less complete. Although a characteristic resembles that of other Cretaceous birds, the bad preservation and lack of bones prevented researchers from classifying it as a new species.
Read more: What makes Archaeopteryx fossils the strange bridge between dinosaurs and birds?
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Before joining Discover, Paul Smaglik spent more than 20 years as a scientific journalist, specializing in the United States Life Science Policy and global scientific career problems. He began his career in newspapers, but changed to scientific journals. His work has appeared in publications that include scientists, sciences, nature and American scientific.
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