Imagine zooming out on a giant family tree that includes every bird you have ever seen. Ostriches sprint across open plains, hummingbirds hover at flowers, penguins slice through cold seas, and eagles ...

(Reuters) - Scientists have unearthed in southeastern China the fossil of a quail-sized bird that lived about 150 million years ago during the Jurassic Period and possessed surprisingly modern traits, ...

Researchers have discovered a 149-million-year-old bird fossil in southeastern China, featuring a short tail structure that could rewrite the evolutionary history of birds. As detailed in a study ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. I write about biodiversity and the hidden quirks of the natural world. Fossil discoveries unlock chapters of our planet’s storied ...

Introduction : changing the questions in avian paleontology / Gary Kaiser and Gareth Dyke -- Theropod diversity and the refinement of avian characteristics / Peter J. Makovicky and Lindsay E. Zanno -- ...

Scientists in China have pushed the timeline of avian evolution back by 20 million years with the discovery of the world’s earliest known bird, Baminornis zhenghensis. Unearthed in the Jurassic rock ...

For more than a century, scientists believed that a fossil of a winged dinosaur from the Jurassic Period discovered 160 years ago in Germany represented the earliest birds. Now, researchers have ...

The fossil of a Jurassic bird unearthed in southeastern China has major implications for the history of avian evolution, researchers say. Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ...