Now, a new fossil discovered in 2011 and analyzed in a recent study published inNature appears to provide the missing link. The well-preserved skull reveals key bird-like features, including a ...

Scientists uncovered a 149-million-year-old bird fossil in southeastern China with unexpectedly modern traits they believe could rewrite the evolutionary history of birds.

For decades, scientists have wondered at the taxonomy of Vegavis iaai— an ancient avian specimen that lived in what is now Antarctica during the late Cretaceous period.

A newly studied Vegavis iaai skull from Antarctica confirms that modern bird lineages, like ducks and geese, were evolving ...

Scientists found that when birds lose the ability to fly, their skeletons change first, while feathers take much longer to ...

The fossil, dating back 150 million years to the Jurassic Period, reveals a surprisingly modern bird for its age. The stark anatomical contrast between these two earliest-known birds, coupled with ...

We have little trouble telling modern birds and reptiles apart, but avian ancestors had intermediary characteristics. One of the newly described species, named Baminornis zhenghensis, has bird ...

Researchers examined dozens of bird species in museum collections looking for differences in the feathers and bodies between birds that can fly and birds that can't. They found that when birds evolve ...

Despite the ongoing threat of bird flu, many homesteaders consider poultry a great place to start when raising your own livestock. There’s many things to love – poultry require less space than most ...

A 68-million-year-old Antarctic fossil revealed the oldest known modern bird, Vegavis iaai, a duck-sized diver with traits linking it to today’s waterfowl. A fossil unearthed in Antarctica has ...