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A 150-million-year-old Chinese fossil of a flightless Jurassic bird is scrambling theories of avian evolution

An artist's illustration of Yuezhuornis yangyuanensis, a Cretaceous bird whose "Frankenstein" fossil features suggest flight may not have been the primary driver of avian evolution.
An artist's illustration of Yuezhuornis yangyuanensis, a Cretaceous bird whose "Frankenstein" fossil features suggest flight may not have been the primary driver of avian evolution.

A crow-sized flightless bird has been named the earliest known example of its kind, overturning the long-standing view that flight was what shaped avian evolution in its opening chapter. The new species, Yuezhuornis yangyuanensis, was found in Fujian Province and is described in the journal Nature. Palaeontologist Wang Min of the Chinese Academy of Sciences said the find shows early bird evolution was 'far more complicated than we previously realised'. The 800-gram animal was a contemporary of the famous Archaeopteryx and probably moved on the ground like a roadrunner rather than taking to the air.

Yuezhuornis combined bird-like hips and legs with dinosaur traits including serrated teeth and an extensible second toe usually found in predatory theropods.

The discovery indicates that some of the very earliest birds were already giving up flight at the moment the lineage was first taking shape, reversing the assumed evolutionary direction.

Wang Min said the fossil 'just changes our assumption about what a Jurassic bird looks like', describing it as a 'mosaic' of avian and dinosaurian characteristics.

Morebioengineer.orgJurassic fossil reveals early birds that abandoned flight entirelysci.newsJurassic Fossil Hints that Some Early Birds Were Flightlessnewscientist.comFlightless ancient bird complicates our picture of wing evolutioncgtn.comThis Jurassic bird skipped flight school - CGTNglobaltimes.cnJurassic bird discovery challenges conventional view of avian evolution - Global Timesua.newsLikely flightless Jurassic predatory bird found in Chinabignewsnetwork.comCHINA-FUJIAN-JURASSIC FOSSIL-EARLY BIRD EVOLUTION (CN)The IndependentNewly discovered 'Frankenstein' bird fossil challenges theories of evolutionEcns.cnChina discovers Jurassic flightless bird fossil, challenging traditional views on avian evolution - Ecns.cnThe StarJurassic fossil found in east China challenges assumptions about early bird evolution
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