Scientists discovered two Jurassic bird fossils in China, pushing back bird diversification by 20 million years. One, ...

The bird has a short tail ending in a pygostyle, an important aerodynamic innovation moving the center of mass forward toward the wings. A 150 million-year-old fossil reveals early bird ...

“A short tail ending with a pygostyle is a universal feature of extant birds. It provides attachment for fan-shaped tail feathers facilitating more sophisticated and powerful flight,” Zhou sai ...

Modern birds' tails finish with several vertebrae fused into a bone known as a pygostyle, and that of Baminornis zhenghensis was the same. The survival of reptilian tails in some later ...

Wang: A fossil’s age is always later than the species’ actual origin. To estimate evolutionary timelines, scientists construct phylogenetic trees — a “Tree of Life” that maps species’ relationships ...

"A short tail ending with a pygostyle is a universal feature of extant birds. It provides attachment for fan-shaped tail feathers facilitating more sophisticated and powerful flight," Zhou said.

The fossilized bird Baminornis zhenghensis was discovered in Zhenghe County, Fujian Province. Its short tail ends in a compound bone called the pygostyle, a feature uniquely present in modern birds.