This just in from
Nature:
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(Credit for images: Xing Xu)
The transition from dinosaurs to birds is poorly understood because
of the lack of well-preserved fossils, and many scientists argue that
bird-like dinosaurs appear too late in the fossil record to be the true
ancestors of birds.
In Nature this week, Xing Xu and colleagues describe an
exceptionally well-preserved fossil of Anchiornis huxleyi from the
province of Liaoning, China. Long feathers cover the arms and tail, but
also the feet, suggesting that a four-winged stage may have existed in
the transition to birds.
Anchiornis huxleyi was previously thought to be a primitive bird,
but closer inspection reveals that it should be assigned to the
Troodontidae, a group of dinosaurs closely related to birds. The
authors date the fossil to the earliest Late Jurassic, meaning that it
is the oldest bird-like dinosaur reported so far, and older than
Archaeopteryx, the earliest known bird. They conclude that the presence
of such a species at this time in the fossil record effectively
disputes the argument that bird-like dinosaurs appeared too late to be
the ancestors of birds.>>
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