A chicken-sized dinosaur fossil found in China may have overturned a long-held theory about the origin of birds -
A chicken-sized dinosaur fossil found in China may have overturned a long-held theory about the origin of birds.
For 150 years, a species called Archaeopteryx has been regarded as the first true bird, representing a major evolutionary step away from dinosaurs.
But the new fossil suggests this creature was just another feathery dinosaur and not the significant link that palaeontologists had believed.
Its discovery and features are reported in the journal Nature.
The authors of the report argue that three other species named in the past decade might now be serious contenders for the title of "the oldest bird".
Archaeopteryx has a hallowed place in science, long hailed as not just the first bird but as one of the clearest examples of evolution in action.
Discovered in Bavaria in 1861 just two years after the publication of Darwin's Origin of Species, the fossil seemed to blend attributes of both reptiles and birds and was quickly accepted as the "original bird".
But in recent years, doubts have arisen as older fossils with similar bird-like features such as feathers and wishbones and three fingered hands were discovered.
Now, renowned Chinese palaeontologist Professor Xu Xing believes his new discovery has finally knocked Archaeopteryx off its perch.
His team has detailed the discovery of a similar species named Xiaotingia which dates back 155 million years to the Jurassic Period.
By carefully analysing and comparing the bony bumps and grooves of this new chicken-sized fossil, Prof Xu now believe that both Archaeopteryx and Xiaotingia are in fact feathery dinosaurs and not birds at all.
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