Chinese scientists have made a groundbreaking discovery in Fujian Province by unearthed the oldest short-tailed bird fossil to date, dating back approximately 150 million years. This find suggests that birds may have originated earlier than previously believed.
The fossilized bird, named Baminornis zhenghensis, was discovered in Zhenghe County, Fujian Province. One of its distinguishing features is the pygostyle, a compound bone at the end of the tail that is uniquely present in modern birds. This indicates that the body structure of modern birds began to emerge in the Late Jurassic Period, 20 million years earlier than previously known.
\"This is a groundbreaking discovery. It overturns the previous situation that Archaeopteryx was the only bird found in the Jurassic Period,\" said Zhou Zhonghe, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).
The bird exhibits a unique combination of traits, including modern bird-like shoulder and pelvic girdles, as well as a non-avian dinosaur-like hand, a phenomenon that researcher Wang Min from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP) finds particularly intriguing.
Based on this discovery, scientists speculate that the emergence of the earliest birds could trace back to an even earlier period, possibly between 172 million to 164 million years ago.
The study, conducted by researchers from IVPP and the Fujian Institute of Geological Survey, was published in the latest issue of Nature.
