A quail-size fossil uncovered in China suggests birds evolved millions of years earlier than previously thought.

Biologists previously believed modern birds had evolved 20 million years later than the new evidence suggests.

Archaeopteryx, long considered the earliest fossil bird, could be knocked off its perch by Baminornis zhenghensis, which lived around 150 million years ago and had a short tail like those of modern bi ...

FUZHOU, Feb. 13 (Xinhua) -- Chinese scientists have unearthed the oldest short-tailed bird fossil, dating back about 150 ...

The Archaeopteryx, the fossils of which were first discovered around 1860, belonged to the Late Jurassic period and was once considered the earliest bird. However, its long tail and primitive features ...

Before Darwin’s theory became central to evolutionary biology, it still had gaps that were left to be filled—until a certain ...

The researchers used several methods to explore the position of Baminornis zhenghensis in the evolutionary tree of birds. The results showed that Baminornis zhenghensis was only just derived than ...

Jurassic bird fossil discovery of a species named Baminornis zhenghensis pushes bird evolution timeline back 20 million years ...

It had feathers and wings, so it was clearly a bird — but it sported a long tail and sharp claws, which seemed reptilian. A smattering of other feathery Jurassic fossils, including those known ...

With its glaciers and sub-zero temperatures, Antarctica hardly seems like a place of refuge. However, the now icy continent might have been just that for the early ancestors of today’s living ...

Birds have many features that distinguish them from other animals alive today, but their earliest ancestors looked noticeably different from the familiar creatures we’ve come to recognise. Although ...