Feathers fly in first bird debate

[Tank]

Feathers fly in first bird debate

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.

The discovery of Xiaotingia, as it is known, is reported in Nature magazine.

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"...

Damn these transitional fossils turning up all the time, God must have been taking the micky!

[OldGit]

Still, at least we're finding more intermediate forms, to the discomfort of the crazies.  Even so, I suspect the creationists will sniff out a change in evolutionary science and distort it to their own ends.

Headline:  EVOLUTIONISTS PROVED WRONG YET AGAIN!

[Willow]

Is this not just an argument of semantics.  What is a bird?  If a bird has teeth and claws on it's forelimbs, then Archaeopteryx is a bird.  The idea of a bird is based on modern biology where there is a more clear line between birds and non-birds.  Evolution demands there to be gradual change and therefore in between type species.

Some types of dinosaurs had feathers, some of those were the forerunner of birds.  If Archaeopteryx did not give rise to the lineage of modern birds, then that gives us more detail about this stage of evolution.

But it does not devalue the fossil, it only changes how we interpret it.   You could as easily say that Clyde Tombaugh was wrong when he discovered a nineth planet because we now recognise it as a dwarf planet.  Pluto doesn't care.

[Tank]

Enormous Bird Lived Alongside Dinosaurs

It's the second known large avian from the dinosaur era, adding to the list of birds that lived alongside dinosaurs.

An enormous prehistoric bird, which might have resembled a very big ostrich, lived alongside dinosaurs around 83 million years ago, according to new research.

The bird, called Samrukia nessovi after the mythical Kazakh Phoenix, lived in what is now Kazakhstan. It is described in the latest Royal Society Biology Letters.

The discovery confirms "that big birds were living alongside Cretaceous non-avian dinosaurs," lead author Darren Naish said. "In fact, these big birds fit into the idea that the Cretaceous wasn't 'a non-avian dinosaurs-only theme park.' Sure, non-avian dinosaurs were important and big in ecological terms, but there was at least some space for other land animals."...

Although not an early bird this discovery is interesting as it illustrates that there were a greater variety and larger population of birds at the end of the dinosaur era that was previously known.