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 ...

"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.

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 ...

These characteristics highlight the role of mosaic evolution in early bird development. Notably, Baminornis zhenghensis has a short tail ending in a compound bone called the pygostyle, a feature ...

The study pushes back the appearance of an important avian feature, represented by the pygostyle, by nearly 20 million years. The fossil, discovered in November 2023, was identified as a bird ...

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.